The Mean Game

An incredibly common thing in improv classes is people start scenes as someone who is subject to unfair behavior.

Then everyone tags in and piles on that unfair behavior. Edit.

Something like this:

Person 1: Hey boss, I just noticed that my hours have been cut next week from 40 hours to 20. Is something up?

Boss: (shrugs shoulders, oblivious to their own unfairness) Yeah, I just don’t want you to be worried about stuff.

Person 1: Worried about stuff? What do you mean? (this will never be answered)

(Tag) Child: Mom! Me and Timmy are leaving for another family. Yeah, we don’t want you to be worried.

Person 1: Leaving? But… (not allowed to finish, because the whole point is moving before you have to really digest things)

(Tag) St. Peter, in Heaven: Welcome to heaven. But you’re actually going to hell.

Edit.

I acknowledge that it kind of works. It’s mean and shallow and can’t last more than 90 seconds. But it works. Having the whole world crap on you for no good reason is something we can all relate to.

When I was coming up, we called it “the mean game.” Everyone is mean.

It works, but it’s shallow. The villains are mean just… because. Nothing is examined. You can’t sit in any feelings because no one really is committed to their behavior.

Fast tags and edits prevent us from noticing: there’s nothing really there.

Good luck if you’re an improviser who wants to do grounded thoughtful work. You will be tagged out before you even know what’s going on.

Antidote: Play Fools and Villains

The solution is to learn to play three dimensional fools and villains. People who behave badly, naively, foolishly — but who truly believe they are doing the right thing.

This takes practice. You can’t just be arbitrarily mean. You have to play people with selective blind spots.

It’s a FEELING, after a while. You step into a scene and you will play a version of yourself that is just one notch more mean/stupid/naive/foolish that you really are.

The phrase I like is one notch below the top of your intelligence.

Just a spoonful of stupid to allow silly things to happen.

Let’s replay the scene above and let the villain (the boss) become a whole person. I will let the boss go first — so that the person initiating the scene is taking an active role.

Boss: Leslie, step into my office.

Person 1: What’s up, boss?

Boss: Look, I’m cutting your hours in half. You seem stressed out lately, and frankly it’s harshing the mellow around here.

Person 1: But —- that’s gonna ruin my pay! I’m not going to be able to make a living.

Boss: This is what I’m talking about — the bad vibes you’re giving off are insane!

Person 1: Yes, but YOU’RE CAUSING the bad vibes!

Boss: You gotta make tough decisions when you’re in this chair.

You don’t need to tag so early. And if you do, hopefully the tag out is cognizant of being more of a real person.

(tag) Child: Mommy, do you need me and Timmy to find another family? You seem stressed out!

Person 1: No! Sweetheart, I never want you to go away.

Child: Okay, well it’s an option. I’ve been sourcing a few other families and some of them have the bandwith.

Person 1: Don’t talk like this!

Child: God, the bad vibes on you.

Every character in a scene must be a real person. That includes the “bad guys.”

Being a good villain or fool is essential to have comedic scenes that are also grounded and playable.

Other posts I’ve written about playing fools:

Let me know in the comments what you think!

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv digital streams: (YouTube channel and Instagram page): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon) - US and UK buyers only.
  
  It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
  
  US and UK: The non-Amazon option for my book is available for UK buyers now! That’s new!

“Calling things out” is when you directly address a weird thing - “That’s weird when you do that.” When you do it, you must do it from the place of someone who cares. Else you hurt the scene.

“Calling things out” is taught very aggressively in Los Angeles. You see people calling things out all the time in scenes. But they often do it badly, meaning in an uninvested way. They sound smug or, worse, completley uninterested.

Students often complain about being a voice of reason. “I couldn’t think of what to say as the voice of reason.”

It’s hard to communicate in just words on a screen, but something like this.

Scene: two people on a date in a restaurant

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: (bored, uninterested) “That’s gonna be weird. Don’t do that.”

When you watch, you can feel that Person 2 has been coached to do it that way. They’re checking a box, not making a choice.

This isn’t a “voice of reason” problem. It’s an acting problem.

Before you call anyone out, you have to make a decision that you know this person and like them. You WANT this date to work.

And then, say what you would say.

…if you were really on the date, and this was someone you liked.

Refusing To Call Things Out

Let’s back up. How do we get to a place where folks are calling things out badly?

Becuase we are not socialized to be good at speaking honestly to “bad” beahvior.

At first, improvisers reject any idea that seems too weird.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: (basically talking out to the audience) “Um, okaaaayyy, I’m leaving!” (and then they half walk out of the scene and look to the coach wondering what to do.)

Or they do a sort of “yes, but I’m not involved” move.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: “Fine with me. I just want some pancakes.”

Or they do a big empty “yes” where they agree but don’t commit.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: “Sure let’s do it.”

Waiter comes back in the scene. No one moves because they are not actually committed and suddenly feel really weird. Everyone freezes in place for years.

Level 1 Solution: Ask Why

The simple mechanical advice I used to give to “voices of reason” was this: ask why. It’s okay advice. It kind of works. Trouble is, the “voice of reason” is still uninvested in the scene.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: (bored, uninterested) “Why do you think that would help?” (no emotion, no interest)

This can maybe work. But the problem is that person 2 feels uninvolved.

They say to their coach “I couldn’t think of what else to say.”

Sure, because you wrote yourself out of the scene.

Actual Solution: Give Yourself A Reason To Stay

The real answer is this: give yourself a reason to stay.

Decide that you know and care about this person. Heck, decide you also know and care about this restaurant. Decide you care about the waiter. Come up with a simple backstory and history of why you give a shit.

Then, say what you would say.

THEN the scene is not just about the weird person who wants to wrestle waiters. It’s about this dysfunctional couple who are stuck together.

If you decide to leave, it’s because you’re at the end of your rope, and it breaks your heart.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: (throws napkin down) “That’s it. I have to leave. No more! No more wrestling waiters!”

Or, if you’re oblivious, it’s because you love them so much you’re completely comfortable.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: “I love how michievious you are. You’re a gem. I’m going to have pancakes.”

Or if you join in, it’s with love and determination. You commit to his crazy idea.

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: “You know what? You’re right. Let’s take over.”

Or if you call them out, it’s with the gravity and weight of someone who is begrudgingly saying the thing they know needs to be said:

Person 1: “When the waiter comes back, I’m going to wrestle them.”

Person 2: “Dear, I want you to play the tape forward here. What do you think that gets you, if you wrestle the waiter?”

In the end, it has nothing to do with whether or not you call them out. It’s whether or not you can INSTANTLY COMMIT TO THE VERSION OF THIS REALITY WHERE YOU CARE.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon) - US and UK buyers only.
  
  It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
  
  US and UK: The non-Amazon option for my book is available for UK buyers now! That’s new!

This year, I’ve taught improv in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Ohio, Toronto and Vermont. Online, I’ve taught folks from the UK, Washington DC, Nashville, Atlanta, Austin, Singapore, Central America and other places. This past week, my theater hosted it’s fourth week-long intensive for out-of-town students, with students from all over America and Europe.

It dawned on me that all of these places feature an initiation style I rarely see in Los Angeles. It’s so subtle I did not notice it at first! It goes like this:

One person steps out and does object work.
A second person steps out right behind them and comments.
The scene begins.

Sounds innocuous, right? But there’s a problem there and I think it’s hurting improv worldwide!

Becuase what’s really happening is this:

One person steps out and does object work.
BEFORE THAT PERSON HAS SOLIDIFIED ANY CHOICE AT ALL, a second person steps out right behind them and comments.
THE FIRST PERSON DODGES ANYTHING INTERESTING. The scene begins.

I’ll cut to the chase: people are not making choices. They instead wait for someone else to move and then simply comment on it.

QUALIFICATION: I saw TONS of great improv and great players at every place I listed above. But the problem I’m citing here was also present in every community.

Quick: Interrupt at all costs!

It’s not just the initiation. It’s throughout the scene. Folks only walk on while someone else is talking.

They make a “tag out wave” and start talking before anyone has even seen them leave the side lines.

They edit right before someone reacts.

They hug the backline until someone else steps out, then they rush out and start talking.

For newer students, I forgive this. They’re getting over their fear of performing. It’s extremely common in early levels for everyone to interrupt each other. You note the most egregious cases and move on. Folks get better.

What I’m seeing instead is a deliberate style evolving from folks who are not nervous. It’s this:

• Don’t move until someone else has.

• Cut them off and tell them what’s weird.

• If nothing’s weird, make an accusation or create a problem.

It’s a distorted version of “framing” where you call out something strange. The framing is CREATING the weird thing, which wasn’t even there.

Shallow Agreement

Truthfully, this style can sort of work, for a short bit, if you make every scene a weird world and repeat. Something like this:

• Person 1: (vaguely chops)

• Person 2: Making dinner, Dad?

• Person 1: Yeah, I thought I’d give your Mom a break. You know…(about to use the suggestion, but we’ll never know)

• Person 2: But you’re a terrible cook!

• Person 1: No I’m not (denial), I’m following your mother’s recipe that I got from…. (interrupted)

• Person 3 walks on (who are they? we’ll never know): Dad, I ate your snack (falls over and dies)

• Person 4 walks on (maybe the spouse?): Sweetheart, I’m divorcing you. You’re cooking is just too bad.

• Person 1 (Dad): But I… (edit)

I made this up, but it is not far off! Even in this terrible example, I can feel a degree of fun and joy with the big heighening. There’s a KIND OF agreement. And there’s a pattern.

But it’s very shallow. Impatient. There’s no one that feels like a real person. It’s cutting off the possibility of any true surprises. And it can’t last more than, say, 90 seconds.

In video game terms, this is “button mashing.” You’re just reacting early, without precision, and jumping on the first thing that moves.

Here in LA, in the UCB and UCB-adjacent universe, we’re fighting a totally different problem. There’s no collaboration, but it’s because people make too MANY choices. They overly steer the whole scene. They prevent any surprising reactions.

My Prescription: Initiation Etiquette

The problem is that people do not have confidence they will find a center (a game, an unusual thing, a turn, a surprise) so they kinda pretend they have something when they don’t.

The real, deep solution is: make interesting, grounded choices. Have better judgment as to what counts as “unusual.”

(Just like the solution to “button mashing” is to “git gud.”)

But a more mechanical prescription is this: Whoever initiates gets to finish their move.

I call it initiation etiquette.

The initiation does NOT need to be a full premise (though it could be). But it should have some choice in it - who you are, where you are, what’s happening. A tone. A vibe.

The initiator has a responsibility to make SOME choice. And the responder has a respnosibility to fully hear it and use it.

Establish a good connection right away.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon) - US and UK buyers only.
  
  It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
  
  US and UK: The non-Amazon option for my book is available for UK buyers now! That’s new!

Below is a plan for a minimalist coaching session. The basic plan here is to make the practice less about the coach and more about the group being on their feet. This is a good approach if you’re new to a group or just subbing in for one session.

Qualification: As with all advice, this is my current best guess! I reserve the right to change my mind and please bear in mind I am quite often wrong.

Second qualification: I wrote too much below, ironically.

Running The Practice

If you’re hired as a coach, they want your expertise and wisdom. But they also just need someone to run the practice. Do these things so they don’t have to.

Start the practice

Don’t wait for the chat to die down to begin. I don’t even wait for everyone to get there. I get started early with warmups. Folks who arrive late (no matter what you say or do, there will be folks who arrive late) simply miss the warmups.

Have a plan for the start

You don’t need to know every exercises you’re going to run, but have a plan for the start. Have a couple of warm-ups and one exercise ready.

Warm-Ups

For warm-ups, I like “Five Things” and “Thumper” but any will do. Many veterans coaches will just say “do whatever warmup you like,” but it will be faster if you pick for them. Two is fine, three at the most.

First Exercise

For a first exercise, I like doing a set of two-person scenes. Everyone goes twice. I edit the scenes after a minute or so. You can give them a simple prompt here, like “start with object work” or “have the first line be answering a question.” But any exercise here that you like is good.

They will get better over the course of this. It’s like an engine just turned on, shuddering at first and then settling into a hum.

Keep The Check-In Brief

It’s only after the warm-ups and first exercise that I’ll ask the team what they want to work on. I do this because usually not everyone is there until 20 minutes into the practice. Maybe that’s an LA thing, but I think it’s universal.

It’s good to ask the team what they want. They often won’t know. It’s good to know if they are doing shows and if so, what form they use. If they really do have something they are looking for, they’ll be able to tell you quickly.

Basic Outline Of Practice

Here is my preferred outline of a coaching session. This is by no means standard, just how I like it.

• Warm Ups (2)

• A round of two person scenes with almost no notes (any exercise could go here)

• Check in with team: You working on anything?

• A set (their show format if they have one, else just a suggestion-and-go montage). After, I’ll give notes/observations on a macro level.

• Two exercises to work on things I noticed in the set.

• Another set (or two?) at the end. Notes after.

If everything worked, each person got to do 8 or 9 scenes plus warm-ups.

Check out Caroline’s improvcoach.app for a nice list of exercises and such.

Giving Notes

The notes below are things you can say quickly, that won’t promote an argument. They are focused on mechanical things rather than deeper discussions of taste. You’re going to let a lot of things go. When they do things that you’ve seen a million times like have someone interrupt a scene as a director going “cut cut cut” you’re going to let them.

You will mostly only note them on issues of listening and understanding.

Things To Look For In The First Set

First I check the communication channels. Do they listen? Do they let each other finish? Are they using each other’s choices immediately in the next line? Do they adapt and change as opposed to resisting change?

This category (communication) is more important than the next two! If someone is routinely ignoring they’re teammates, it’s WAY easier for a coach to call them out instead of their teammates needing to have an awkward team meeting.

Then I check the emotional intelligence of the scenes. Are they talking anywhere near like human beings? Do they explain the things that an audience would want them to explain? Do they “say what someone would say?”

Finally I check game and unusual things. Are people setting up unusual things, and if so, is anyone noticing? Do they accidentally solve problems or do they allow the funny things to “get worse.” Are they good at letting themselves be “fools” if gifted? Do they have a “why” for their unusual behaviors?

I’ll pick one main thing to discuss after the set.

• “In that set, I felt like there was a lot of interrupting. Let’s practice slowing down and making sure we’re hearing each other.”

• “I think we could gain a lot by speaking more honestly —- say what you would say. It’s okay if you temporarily ‘break’ what’s fun - it will come back stronger.”

• “The scenework is good. We could do better on recognizing games. Folks are trying to set up unusual things and it’s getting ignored.”

Noting bad listening, denials, interruptions

These are the easiest things to note because folks won’t argue them. I’ll often do it right as it happens. “She called you honey, and you called her Darth Vader — did you notice that?”

Sometimes I’ll interrupt and say “did you hear what he just said?”

I won’t do it a lot. Once or twice gets the point across and folks genuinely do want to hear each other.

Exercises to help:

• I Know scenes.

• Any exercises that force you to do object work (always improves listening)

• People can say maximum eight words, then must wait for someone else to talk

• I / You / We scenes

Noting Emotional Reality

Tougher because this is subject to taste. But if all the scenes are wacky and absurd I’ll remind them after the scene “it’s good to say what the character really would say.”

Boundaries of play: Sometimes I’ll use the metaphor “emotional reality are the boundaries of the court - if you step outside the boundaries it ends the scene for the audience.”

The word gentle: Some groups are very hesitant to be “honest” in scenes - they feel like they’re saying no or being unhelpful. I say “You can GENTLY challenge” or “you can be GENTLY curious when you’re calling something out.”

Exercises to help

• Can I Be Honest With You?

• Park Bench of Truth

• Suggest using these phrases: “I know you mean well, but…” “I’m curious why you always…”

Noting Game

Truly the hardest. I’m not even sure I’m good at this.

Avoid getting too deep. I focus on two areas

• did they notice when someone set up an unusual thing

• did they have a why

I worry way less about walk-ons and tag-outs if I’m doing a “minimalist” session.

Setting up unusual things

Most common problems with games are people simply not noticing an unusual thing.

Like this: someone wants to gift a game onto someone but instead just complained about them, and the person got defensive

• Person 1: why do you pay so much attention to your shoes? (trying to make a game)

• Person 2: response: because i’m a lawyer, my shoes are important to my job! you know that! (ruined the game)

After the scene, point it out: “They were trying to gift you unusual behavior, did you notice that?” Both people will jump all over themselves to say what they could have done better.

Your notes should be simple and non-thinky. I prefer acting notes to comedy notes.

• Commit more, speak with feeling

• Gift yourself next time

• Be more specific

Have A Why

If they successfully agreed on an unusual thing, they next big problem is “er, how do we play this game?”

The answer is usually “have a why.”

If they have a human grounded reason/emotion motivating their behavior, they’ll know how to play it.

I use Alex Berg’s “Hand Thing” explanation. It works well!

Exercises For Game

• You Wanted To See Me?

• Explain To Me Why You Do X?

• Hear Me Out

Other coaching notes

• When in doubt, stop talking and get them up. Improv is a better coach than you are.

• Take note of who hates side coaching. If someone completely shuts down after you interrupt them, don’t do it again.

• If someone argues your notes, accept their argument and stop giving them notes. This is different than folks who want clarification. If someone says to you “yeah, i don’t like doing that” I just go “gotcha” and move on.

• The very first time someone makes a pop culture reference, stop and ask the group who knows that reference. Point out it’s the job of the person who brought up the reference to give enough context that everyone can fake it.

Let me hear your thoughts on this!

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon) - US and UK buyers only.
  
  It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
  
  US and UK: The non-Amazon option for my book is available for UK buyers now! That’s new!

We live in an age of defiant assholes. Dunking on someone is the most revered comedic act. The president of America is a man whose only communication tactic is to give someone the middle finger. Social media is a hive of angry folks racing to own the “other side.”

What can improv comedy — which demands folks “yes-and” each other — offer to this tide?

In the long run, very little. Improv rewards reacting, empathy and losing.

But this is where “game of the scene” teaching can help. Because playing game allows intentionality.

Meaning if you are a young comedian, raised on front-facing solo instagram characters, crowdwork clips that show people dunking on each other, tweets that own — you will feel safe playing game of the scene. Because the joke is clear.

I taught at UCB New York during its peak, when seemingly everyone in the city even remotely related to comedy was taking an improv class there. I saw actors, stockbrokers, college students, senior citizens, writers, scientists, a few full-on lunatics and even (orchestra stops, a lone mallet rebounds off a kettle drum) stand up comedians.

Stand-ups were generally pretty terrible at improv. They couldn’t play real, they wouldn’t lose, they made everything a joke right away, and they just straight up would not do warm-ups.

But you know what they could do? Tag-outs.

Once the game had been established, they could tag-in and CRUSH. It was comedy time. It was time to riff. Perfect heightening. Surprising and on-game.

They were also okay at premise initiations, right up until anyone else responded.

Because tag outs and premise initiations are the realm of the writer. The UCB brought writing muscles into improv. Sometimes to a fault. Sometimes to great power.

If I were teaching improv to a group of antsy kids (by which I mean human beings younger than 25) I would get right to a living room opening, premise intiations and get those tags going.

I would be lying. I would be entrapping them with the writerly approaches to improv.

Until I saw that a few were hooked on the actual collaboration.

It does happen. There are many stand-ups who are also gifted improvisers. I’ll pick Maria Bamford as one example, but there are many. A minority among the pack, but they’re there.

Once I saw that improv had hooked a few of these hypothetical zinging youngsters, I’d fully pull the rug out: let’s do a monoscene.

Nothing kills bad commitment than a 20 minute scene. Holy crap, it’s funny to watch someone try to enter a monoscene as a criminally violent character and then have to sit there and actually talk to someone. The initial broad choices melt away.

After this class —- all of this is fully happening within my imagination — I imagine a good 80% of the children would flee.

But 20% would stay.

Improv is smaller than ever. But it is far from gone! We are Athens in the Age of Sparta. We are the Foundation Library after the Galactic Empire has fallen. We’re a goddamn golden clockwork bird in a tree.

Exercises to please the impatient: Beat The Hell Out Of The Game, Premise Pulls, Lazy Slacker (the version that allows tag-outs, not the more patient one), 5 Minute Harolds.

Exercises to turn them into true believers: “I Know” Scenes, 60 Seconds of Silence, Choose To Lose, Sound and Movement openings and 1000 Minute Monoscenes.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

He basically says “make sure you play bass on the first beat of the measure and other than that do funky stuff in between - do whatever you want.”

First, I laughed at how zero calorie this advice was. “Do whatever you want?” What if you totally suck? What if you have no taste? What if you have never heard funk music? He doesn’t mention key, rhythm or melody. He says the work “breakdown” and does not say what he means by that.

Is this really advice?

Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

But then I thought about how much mediocre improv I see done by people trying hard to “do it right.”

There are lot of improv groups in Los Angeles that could be vastly improved if they “did whatever they want” — as long as they did the improv equivalent of “hitting the one.”

“Hitting the one” in improv comedy is saying yes to what you’re given. Not literally saying yes and having all characters get along, but doing an “improv yes” where you use what you are given every line.

If you’re doing that — and by the way, that is no small task — but if you are indeed using what you’re given — every line, every move — then you kinda can do whatever you want.

You can add info, sure. You can justify. You can explain. You can restate, adding in logic. You can add backstory to make something make sense. You can break the rules of physics to accomodate what you’re given. You can be talking animals and household objects. You can possess magic. You can simple nod your head and repeat.

But you MUST SAY YES.

How Deep Is Your Yes?

I’m a hypocrite because as a coach/teacher I could never keep it as simple as telling a group “just say yes.” I’d want to bend open the “just say yes” rule to include many other guidelines.

The simplest I could keep my teaching — maybe — is to say this: “say yes deeply and ground it.”

I was at the Vermont Comedy Club this week. They do mostly stand up but also have a small passionate improv scene. I went with my brother Brian to see a house team he coaches.

It was a really fun, joyful night, largely because the teams were really disciplined in saying yes to each other. Improvisers in Burlington have less experience than Los Angeles improvisers. But they are way more disciplined at just saying yes to each other.

The main difference between the newest groups in Burlington and the most advanced teams I see in Los Angeles is not a million improv rules. It’s just the the good LA teams say yes MORE DEEPLY than a beginner team.

Levels Of Deepness, Perhaps

I wonder if as a coach and a teacher if I reward people for the simple agreement MORE it would embolden them LATER to get funky. If they can FEEL when they’ve hit the one — they feel validated for that — that they would feel more secure to make interesting moves.

Let’s look at a situation where you are offered something a little confusing, where there is no clear response. Meaning: an offer that leaves you wide open. How many ways can you answer and still “hit the one.”

Let’s say the suggestion is “shoes.” You scene partner looks forward and says “Wow, there’s so many shoes here.”

Level 1

You simply restate the info and add nothing.

You go “I know! There’s like.. (your brain scrambles and can’t think of much) so many!” and that’s it. You two go back and forth for a few time without adding any information as to what’s happening.

“Hit The One” diagnosis: The scene has stalled. But there is really good agreement. You’re listening and repeating. In terms of Bootsy’s bass playing you are ONLY hitting the one. But that’s a good start, honestly.

Level 2

You give part of a simple who what where.

You say “So many shoes! Your mom really loves her shoes.”

“Hit The One” diagnosis: Now you’re yessing and anding. You’re adding a nice simple scenario we can build off of. You are trusting your teammate to hear you —- a deceptively vulnerable act — but this is already an interesting scene, to me. There’s no absurdist spin, there’s no “game” - but we have agreement. We are moving forward. This is good!

Level 3

You give a POINTED who what where — something with some direction and flavor.

You say “Wow, your stepmom has way more shoes than your old mom.”

“Hit The One” diagnosis: Now we’re really into something. We are in the middle of a situation with status and history. There’s ways to be affected. The decision to create this scenario feels personal in an interesting way. It’s relatable. BUT THE MAIN ROOT OF WHAT IS GOOD HERE IS YOU SAID YES.

Level Funky:

Let’s go back down and say you do something that’s considered a “bad” improv move — yet you still technically agree.

Let’s say you say something that implies the world is not real. But not in a good way. In a way that reveals you are trying too hard to be silly and weird.

Let’s say you go “Oh good! With this many shoes we’ll never get sick again!”

“Hit The One” diagnosis: Okay, now I admit — conventionally speaking this is a bad move. You’re ignoring the boundaries of reality. You’re being too crazy and vague.

But you are saying yes.

All that’s missing is someone has to ground this. It could be you or the other person.

Someone has to say something like this:

• “Yes! Lots of shoes because we’re wealthy! And our money will protect us!”

• “Yes! These are magic shoes!”

• “Yes! We keep getting athlete’s foot and these shoes will protect us!”

• Or even something like “Shoes make me feel safe!”

Simplifying

My argument, if I’m making one at all, is that as coaches and teachers we could do a better job of instilling confidence by making sure they see where they are saying yes and how good that is. Rather than simply focus on everything they’re not doing. Make them feel free.

Tell me what I’m missing, folks!

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

Coaching is less about you delivering improv wisdom and more about being a good administrator. Get the practice started. Pick the exercises. Find out what the group wants and if they want different things, suggest a compromise.

Here’s another job the coach can do that can save teams: referee the listening.

Point out when folks do not notice things. Point out when folks communicate things in a confusing way. And on the other side of the balance sheet, point out when someone makes a big adjustment in order to say yes.

I Was Not Listened To

One of the most common complaints from people is “I was not listened to.” It can ruin teams. Be the coach who gently calls it out.

This is especially crucial at the top of scenes. The most common time for people to simply not notice each other is right at the top. Everyone is processing the suggestion or the opening and they are simply not paying any attention to each other.

But the coach should see it.

Did You Notice?

Stop the scene early. I like the phrase “did you notice.”

“Did you notice that this person is acting like they’re your boss and you called them honey?”

“Did you notice that the suggestion was ‘sandwich’ and they were over here doing what looks like making a sandwich and you called them a witch?”

It doesn’t mean the scene could not have been good. Misunderstandings lead to really fun choices.

But a team will lose trust in itself if they don’t really really listen to each other.

It’s Just The Facts

A nice thing about calling this out: almost no one argues. If you tell someone their choice wasn’t grounded, they’ll argue that it was grounded until they die.

But if you say “it looks like they were making a sandwich and you called them a witch” they will at the very least look at the other person and say “I’m sorry, I missed that.”

Becuase you’re not saying the scene was bad. You’re not saying the choice was bad. You’re simply asking “Hey did you notice this thing?”

It’s also good of the coach to notice the good listening. When someone accepts a surprising offer. When someone is able to adjust. Compliment it. Those moments don’t always get a laugh, so they could use your validation.

Qualification

Please assume this entire essay has me also saying “to the best of my knowledge” and “when I’m doing my job right I do this but I don’t always do it.”

Tell me if you think I’m way off in my advice, please! Or suggest a better way to do what I’m talking about.

End of Essay. Commence plugs.

Comedy Bang Bang

I got to do a few live shows with the podcast Comedy Bang Bang last week. The audio of these episodes is available behind their paywall.

If you don’t know it, CBB is an improvised talk show hosted by Scott Aukerman. The live shows always feature genius comedian/professional nice man Paul F. Tompkins as a guest, and then a few other CBB regulars join them. I did shows with Erin Keif (Hey Riddle Riddle), Anna Bezhauler (UCB, Anna and Isabella), Ryan Gaul and ALMOST Connor Ratliff (postponed Boston show).

Standard Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

More on intentionality. I wrote about it a few weeks ago but it’s still all I can think about in terms of improv recently.

Today’s thesis: The real revolution of UCB-style improv is not “game.” It’s “intentionality.”

When the UCB started their theatre in NYC in the late 1990s, they preached playing “game of the scene.” Put very simply, it meant finding the unusual thing, and heightening it.

That means as opposed to playing plot or stakes you play the unusual. If a character says “Honey, I want a divorce, this has been a real C+ marriage.” You focus more on how someone is using grades to express their feelings, rather than worrying about whether the marriage actually ends.

It was a comedy-focused approach to improv, and it was hugely successful as a training program and theater.

Secret Directive: Steer Your Improv

But along with this philosophy came an unspoken directive: steer your improv scene.

You play game by starting with a premise initiation (UCB term) - starting with a full comedy idea, pulled from a verbal opening.

You play game by gifting a comedic point of view onto someone else, basically saying “hey, play this game.”

You play game by tagging into a scene and heightening a small thing that maybe only you noticed, almost as a comment, saying “hey, you accidentally revealed this unusual thing, so play it.”

It was aggressive and sometimes bossy. In the right hands, it was fast and funny and electrifying. In the wrong hands, it resulted in scenes where uninvested actors pointed at each other and said “wow, you’re weird right now. Now you explain it and do that.”

Playing Relationship: Don’t Steer

As game exploded in the NYC improv scene in the early 2000s, folks from Chicago would visit and preach a “slower” brand of improv. “don’t play game, play the relationship.” They said “focus on playing truthfully, make it about the people in the scene - the comedy will come.”

But game versus relationship is a false choice and a dumb way to put it.

What they were really saying was “don’t steer the scene.”

Initiate with something small. React to what the other person says without thinking ahead. Say yes to everything put forward. The comedy will come. The scenes were more cooperative and grounded.

But the trouble with this approach is the comedy very often does not come. You either get boring scenes with false fights and tragic narratives. Or, even worse, everyone just puts on a wacky voice and does not explore any consequences.

Intentionality Versus Flow

I must admit I don’t know if what I’m saying here has any practical value. But it explains things I see all the time in improv.

I see folks with UCB training who simply do not commit at all. They initiate full sketch ideas, tag in to change other people’s ideas and will not bend at all to anything that surprises them.

And I see “relationship” style people who do wacky voices with zero grounding at all.

I want game. And I want flow, also.

Game Without Steering?

Is it possible to have game where no one steers?

Can you have a scene that starts with a small initiation, no tag-outs, excellent agreement and acceptance —- and yet still drifts toward unusual things, patterns and heightening?

Yes, of course. It simply requires the players to have internalized UNUSUAL THINGS. They must play themselves as the fool. They must accept “bad” behavior in themselves and others as part of the reality. They must make their foolish behavior grounded without explaining it away.

In a word, they must be funny.

Like it or not, we’ll be talking more about this topic!

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

Today is a guest column from Chris Gethard. Gethard is a comedian from New Jersey. You know him from his podcast Beautiful / Anonymous, or his stand-up shows, or his books, or his television show, or his viral discussions of the disappearance of the middle class comedian. But I know him best from when he was one of the best improv performers and teachers at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. In this essay, he describes how a local church got him teaching improv again, this time to elementary school students.

®I have taught thousands of people improv. Some of those people are now super successful in entertainment. I’m talking television writers and movie stars.

To be clear, I take no credit for anyone’s success, but do feel pretty good about my time spent in the trenches teaching improv. I was good at it. There was a ten year stretch where I think if you were pursuing improv, I was among a small handful of people that could help you take that pursuit furthest. But even more true is that I haven’t had my pedal to the floor with this stuff in many years and I am no longer as good as I used to be. I don’t teach much anymore.

The teaching I do these days tends to be in schools.

Three years ago, I helped start a non-profit program called Laughing Together. I work with psychologists to come up with improv curriculums. It turns out there’s a lot of academic research that shows improv helps kids with anxiety, makes them more comfortable with public speaking, and is a dynamite way to get them connecting with each other. For kids who are extremely introverted or neuro-divergent it can allow them a low key way to get vulnerable and practice expressing ideas in front of their peers. I’ve gathered a band of great teachers in different pockets of the country and sent them around with the mission statement that this type of comedy can be used to make kids funnier, sure, but that all the other skills that come along with that process are arguably even more valuable.

We’ve taught thousands of students and teachers, and when you see a painfully shy kid put themselves out there via comedy, it is always gratifying. Always touching. It’s cool. I like it.

—--------------

I used to live in New York City and put on avant garde comedy shows. Now I live in a small, rural town in New Jersey and work on my yard. This town only has 3,000 residents. It’s very in the middle of nowhere. It ain’t Montclair or Maplewood where all the artists live. If I run out of toilet paper, that’s a twelve minute drive. It’s sleepy.

The Presbyterian Church in our town is one of the hubs of town social activity. Real small town stuff. I’m not religious, and when I was, I was a Catholic. So I’m not hanging out at the church too often, but I do respect the shit out of the two reverends who run the place. They’re a married couple and they do a lot for our town. So when one of the reverends pulled me aside one day, I was all ears.

“I want you to come teach improv to a bunch of the fifth and sixth graders,” she told me. I politely and immediately explained that I was way too busy. I have a family and a fun but struggling career and a lot of anxiety, and no time for this. But thank you! Then she followed up with the following:

“Well, I just want to say that there are a lot of boys in this town. And their male role models are either people who are successful in business, or people pushing them to be good at sports. And you’re a successful artist who lives in our town, and they’ve never seen that. And you’re a male in the performing arts, which they have no examples of. So I think you could be a different type of male role model to a specific type of boy in this town who might need that.”

I was almost mad at how good she was. Now I couldn’t say no. The idea that in a town with a lot of alpha male energy I was… not that? And that some of the kids in the town school (yes, the one school in the whole town) didn’t have any male influences around them that weren’t all about money or sports? I would be an actual dickhead if I said no. So I said yes.

For six Tuesdays I met with a group of nine boys. Most weeks, only about five to seven actually showed. All of them were in either fifth or sixth grade. They’ve all known each other their entire lives. To put in perspective the small town nature of this, I already had some connection to the families of about half of these boys. One of them is my friend Scott’s son and I watch wrestling events at their house. Luka’s dad is my first grade son’s track coach. Tripp lives down the street from me and is the older brother of Killian, who is one of my son’s best friends. My son plays with his little brother multiple times a week in one of our yards. Real small town, intimate stuff.

None of these kids had done improv before. One of them, Theo, was into doing the school plays. The others had never been on stage before to my knowledge.

I’ve taught kids all over the country, but working with a group this small for this many weeks in a row, without any teachers on site to help keep them in line was eye opening. Here are some things I learned while teaching fifth and sixth grade boys improv:

Improv unlocks ADHD in kids in this age group.

Improv really helps teach kids the value of focus and listening. They aren’t just buzzwords and they have real world value. But that’s easier said than done. And for kids with major focus issues, this stuff does help show focus as a useful skill that helps. That being said, in the process of showing that, it also drags any focus issue a kid has right to the surface. I spent the first thirty minutes of each 90 minute session begging the kids to chill out, to stop literally screaming, to stop wandering off to the snack table, stop talking over me, and stop actually farting during exercises. But I think that ties into -

Kids don’t have too many things these days where there are no consequences.

Telling a fifth grade boy - “Hey - there’s no number grade to this. A coach isn’t going to rate your skills like they do at lacrosse practice. A teacher isn’t going to tell if you passed or failed. You get to do whatever you want as long as you do it together. Also you are allowed to fail.” - turns out, they aren’t hearing too much stuff like that right now. So much of a kid’s life these days is under the observation of a parent, teacher, or coach. So much of their time is segmented down to the minute. And so much of what they’re participating in feels like it is part of a system where they’re constantly being evaluated. So it makes sense to me that when someone says, “I don’t know how this is going to go. It’s totally up to you what form it takes. It can be anything. And failure is part of it, there’s no way around it. Prioritize fun,” it leads to these kids flipping out. They were not being bad per se. They very genuinely could not control themselves. It really felt like feeding kids sugar for the first time. The freedom. The prioritization of joy over success. The adrenaline that comes with connecting with others in a way that focuses on collaboration instead of competition. These are all amazing things, but they make boys in the 10-12 age range act like lawless deranged psychopaths.

I’m talking about a kid who could not stop taking his hat off and throwing it up and catching it while I was talking no matter how many times I asked him not to. Kids relentlessly kicking each other in the ankles while seated to make each other laugh - again, while I was talking. And this is with me prioritizing as little talking as possible when I realized the direction this was going. And when I say these kids spent multiple weeks intentionally farting, I’m not talking about them making fart noises with their mouths. They were lifting one leg up and blasting actual beefers out, again while I was talking. And when a fifth or sixth grade boy farts all the other boys go nuts. I’d be mid-sentence and then just, “Pffffffft” and three minutes of screaming and laughing and running around.

The church community room I taught in had chairs with wheels on them and they instantly became death chariots in the hands of these maniacs. At one point during an object work exercise they stopped using fake objects and instead started whipping oranges at each other and I was actually yelling for them to stop but the madness had taken over. At one point one of them threw a full water bottle trying to get it into the trash can like Kobe but threw it so hard it left a dent in the wall. Of a church community room. I have never dealt with trying to teach in an environment that so often descended into an actual Lord of the Flies esque level of insanity.

There were a few times where I sadly and desperately tried to drop my improv cred to get them to chill. That already feels sad. It is even more sad when it has zero effect. “Guys I have recently been flown to both Scotland and Germany to teach workshops,” got me nothing. “People in New York routinely contact me to come teach and I don’t give them my time,” was met with apathetic shrugs. These protestations had no effect because -

Fifth and sixth grade boys don’t care about your ego.

It actually hit a point of being hilarious how little of a shit they gave about me. Zero questions about my background. No curiosity regarding my qualifications. A negative interest in my career. Our weekly meetings were an excuse for them to rampage and then occasionally do improv.

What’s funny is that all of their parents started reporting back to me that their kids were loving the class. One kid skipped a baseball practice and chose improv instead, which for a fifth grade boy is huge. And I knew my lessons were sinking in because every week, the last twenty to twenty five minutes would be rocking. And they’d all be bummed to leave just as it was getting great. And I had to explain to them over and over again, if we didn’t spend the first half hour acting like lunatics, we’d get there quicker and have more time for it to feel that good.

I’d speak to them individually. “You know you guys are behaving wild and it’s slowing everything down, right?” or “You guys have to calm down, you know this behavior isn’t ok,” would be met with genuine empathy. “Yeah, no, we all see it. Wehave to chill.” They all understood and even felt sympathy for me as their teacher, but sadly it had no effect on actually slowing them down.

I eventually had to send an email home to parents, explaining to them that no one was in trouble, it wasn’t too bad, but that it would probably help me if they all talked to their boys about taking it easy. I didn’t want to do that because A) I ain’t no rat and B) I think the group buy in coming without parental scolding or guidance is actually a key thing. But we just weren’t getting there.

This led to a hilarious conversation, because clearly at least one of the parents was like, “Hey, this guy’s been on tv, cut the shit and show him some respect.” The next class, the boys were slightly more subdued. Before we started one of them was like, “I got a question. Do you really know famous people?” And I was like, “Yeah. I’ve worked with a lot of famous people.” None of this was asked or answered with particular warmth, by the way. More like them asking with a “You told on us” attitude and me answering with a “Where is this going?” suspicion. One of them follows up with “Who’s the most famous person you’ve worked with?” And I was like “Probably Will Ferrell.” And one of them goes “Who’s that?” And I go “You know, Anchorman?” And they were blank faced. Then I remembered how old they were and said, “Buddy the Elf.” And one of them was like “Oh whoa, Buddy the Elf.” That exchange bought me maybe eight minutes of credibility?

When I took a deep breath and ignored the screaming and farting, I was able to see some positives in their behavior. While their focus was completely out of control, I’d worked with groups of adults who could never summon their energy. And when they could focus up, those last twenty minutes of class were pretty good. Their ideas were often surprising and joyous and a reminder of why when working with adults we so often encourage them to be child-like. One of the kids in particular had gone from being very shy on week one to wowing everyone with a lot of fantastical and strange high concepts. One kid who was a steamroller had woven himself into the rhythm of the group. He realized he didn’t need to “be a leader” or point out who made “wrong choices” and just got into the flow with the rest of the kids, all without me calling it out or asking him to adjust. It just happened naturally. The kid who did school plays was demonstrating through action how to be comfortable being center stage and the others were learning from him and meeting his bar without me having to lecture them on doing so. The lessons were working, naturally. And when they got each other laughing, they really laughed for each other.

There are few things more joyous than watching four kids play the good old Panel of Experts game and get so funny that the other four kids in the room watching are literally rolling around on the ground laughing. It’s pure joy.

So then I did something that was probably a bad idea.

I asked them if they would like to do a class show.

To my surprise, after about 90 seconds of debate, all nine of them were like “Sure, let’s do it.”

I was honestly very shocked.

I wanted to do a family only class show because I had a feeling they’d have to put the pieces together in a way they hadn’t pulled off before. They’d need to be on good behavior with parents watching. They’d try to focus up more. And hopefully, they’d feel too self-conscious to blast loud actual farts while other people were talking. That’s why I threw down that gauntlet.

But if I’m being honest, I thought they’d not want to do it and it would be a little bit more of a discussion. Instead, they called my bluff. Two weeks after our last class, they put on a show. It was in a room of about thirty of their parents, siblings, and grandparents.

Here’s the thing about the show: it ruled.

When they arrived to warm up I asked if they were nervous. All of them said no. They are liars. Of course they were nervous. But boys in this age group aren’t great with vulnerability. So they denied any butterflies in the stomach and acted cocky instead.

Then they went more insane than I’d seen them in the prior two months.

We had about half an hour before the audience arrived to warm up, and those thirty minutes were legit mayhem. I was begging them to quiet down and to stop flinging each other into one another while in leather rolling chairs. It really felt like someone was going to die. At one point I started yelling, “If I was about to do my first show and someone who has done thousands of shows for almost three decades was giving me advice, I’d LISTEN.” They barely cared. At one point I was yelling at them, “You guys won’t let me finish my sentence and what’s crazy is I’m giving you advice that will make the show good. You are choosing to have a show where your parents watch it and it’s not going to be as good because you won’t let me finish a sentence.”

And it’s not about me, or my ego. I wasn’t trying to win an Oscar with a Hoosiers-like speech. I was trying to tell them things like, “Make sure you are loud enough people can hear you,” and “Don’t turn your back to the audience.” Sentences that would take roughly five seconds each and aid a show tremendously. They couldn’t even let me get those out.

At one point, the Reverend who convinced me to do this whole thing walked through the back of the room and I was sitting in quiet defeat as the boys all acted like lunatics, ignoring me. She was like “Isn’t the show in like 15 minutes?” And I was like, “Yeah.” And she was like, “Is this how they always are?” And I was like, “Kinda, yeah.”

I think she got sad, seeing that.

That being said, when all the parents entered, my little psychos went outside. The parents filled the room. I brought the gang back in and they stood in the back while I gave the parents a little intro speech. Even during that, the nine boys would not quiet down. It was nuts. The parents were all turning around in dismay and confusion as their boys were pushing each other, screaming, and riding around on a little go kart they found outside and brought inside.

I was like, “So yeah, stuff like this is why you got that email home.”

Then, they crushed the show.

It was short form. Scenes were quick. I did a lot in the set up to protect them. I got them out sooner rather than later. That being said, they were rock stars. With parents now watching, the focus snapped into place in a way it never had before. The first move of the first little game got a decent laugh and I saw all of the boys instantly crave more of that dopamine and positive validation. Each exercise got laughs, as short form is built to. They saw a result of this thing they’d only practiced before and realized the positive reward of laughs is desirable. Normally shy kids dove into exercises in front of their parents and siblings. In exercises where they have the freedom to hang back or opt in, they were all opting in. The laughs were the carrot they hadn’t had dangling in front of them before this. They were chasing it.

And sure, some of these laughs were the kind you’d expect from parents watching their kids, but some of them were legit “Yeah, that would have gotten a laugh anywhere.” I’m not saying these kids could go on stage at UCB on a Friday night tomorrow, but everyone in the room was shocked that a bunch of kids in this age group could do that show and get laughs like that after six weeks. The most introverted kid got huge laughs and I was able to turn and see his parents looking actively confused. An alpha kid pretended to be a dinosaur egg and allowed someone else to sit on him to try to hatch him, and I got to see his parents look at their son showing no hesitation to act silly and vulnerable in front of dozens of onlookers. Kids with big personalities passed the ball. Every scene got laughs. Nothing bombed.

I was very proud of them but also a little salty that it went that well.

It turns out, improv works.

And sorry for blaspheming about an event that took place in a church, but Jesus Christ am I tired.

Thank you Chris!!!

One of the best indie teams in UCB NY history: Krompf (spelling, as far as I can tell, is arbitrary). Neil Casey, Amey Goerlich, Ryan Karels, Joe Wengert. For years (nearly decades) they would run the Krompf breakfast, in which the team would cook eggs and bacon on stage for the audience and then do an improv set. They’re “only” doing improv this year, which I feel is good for the health of the members (and audience) and the fire codes of the theaters.

But let’s reminisce about ye olden days of UCB with this classic Krompf sketch: “Cufflinks.”

I do love the “bad local commercial” genre, though I think this one has at least three other layers of stuff going on in it. My favorite detail on this particular rewatch is that one cufflinks store brags about using a machine called THE OWL while another brags that all of their cufflinks are cleaned by humans.

One of the comments says it feels like an Adult Swim sketch which is true. I think it’s more Mr. Show DNA, but hey, think whatever you like.

If you like Krompf, watch KEVIN — the Amazon Prime animated series co-created by Joe with his friend/ex-girlfriend Aubrey Plaza, or WIDOW’S BAY, which Neil writes for, or go to the CHAOS BLOOM THEATER in Denver, run by Amey (the third ‘cufflink spouse’ in this vid) or see Ryan Karels’ art on his instagram account (the same account that has the video I posted above).

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

Today we answer a question from Brendan M. about the art of “offering nothing.”

A lot of improv instruction is centered on go! But a theme I have noticed when I have talked to more experienced improvisers is that much of the quality and magic seems to come from pause/rest/stop.

Sebastian Conelli (and probably others) talks about not playing every idea you have. Alex Berg’s hand thing includes resting the game. You mention the power of pausing as the secret to being the world’s greatest improviser. It’s attributed to Thelonus Monk that he said something like “Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by… What you don’t play can be more important than what you do.” A visual artist knows the value of negative space.

To phrase this as a question: I am offering something to every scene of every show I am in, even if that’s nothing. How do I hone the skill of offering nothing?

I love this question. It’s put very well. Thank you Brendan.

The phrase you’re looking for is active listening. You remain quiet so others can talk, and then you let the things they say change you.

Active listening is a S-tier level improv skill. Every single time anyone says or does anything in a scene, it should change you. Who you think you are, what has happened before, what you’re worried about.

You should be adjusting your character, your history, your feelings anytime anything happens.

It’s weirdly fun to talk about. Though I get the feeling that people are not so excited to do it?

At any rate, here’s examples of active listening, from most obvious to less.

Overtly Changing Facts

Most obvious: someone says something that changes the facts of what’s going on in a big way.

Suggestion is “school.”

You get a notion you might be a high school principal. You walk out, standing up straight with a sense of authority. You think you might be about to address a student who has misbehaved.

But before you really get any of this out, your scene partner flaps their arms like a fish, and says to you “great day for a swim, isn’t it?”

You drop the idea that you are a principal completely. You start flapping your arms. You are now a fish. You have always been a fish.

You say “Sure is.”

This is active listening. Your words did very little - they only confirmed the information. But internally you made a HUGE adjustment.

Accepting A Gift

Also tough: someone gifts you with a behavior you weren’t expecting.

You’re in a scene and you feel kindly towards the other character. You’re smiling. The two of you are friends in a coffee shop.

Then they say to you “You’ve always resented me, haven’t you?”

It throws you, because you weren’t feeling that way. But you accept it. You mix it in with the kindness you were feeling (because your choices count, too) and combine them into a feeling of guilt and honesty.

You drop your head. You rest your hands on the “table,” palms up. “What can I say? I’m not proud of it, but I do. I resent the hell out of you.”

Again, out loud all you did was say “yes.” But inwardly, you adjusted.

Noticing Context

More subtle: you change your assumptions silently.

Let’s say you sit down for what you think is a job interview. The other person starts the scene with “Thanks for coming in, your resume looks terrific.”

You’re feeling like you’re a kid just out of college, applying for some kind of generic office job.

Then you notice the other person is talking to you in a very familiar way. “It goes without saying, everyone here would love to have you back.”

You take note of this. You’re not a kid. You’ve worked here before, and you screwed something up. Maybe a scandal? Maybe incompetence?

You are older than you thought. This is maybe more humiliating than exciting. This person you are interviewing with once betrayed you, perhaps?

Out loud, you say “Yeah, it’s weird to be here!”

Again, you have said little, but you’ve done a ton of work.

Addressing The Deeper Feelings

Someone has started a scene where the two of you are about to rob a bank. They are talking a LOT.

They’re laying out all these details about the robbery. Because it’s improv, they are stumbling and making a lot of mistakes, searching for details of what’s happening.

You try to sense: is the stumbling around “really” happening? Or is this just because it’s improvised and you should pretend their plan is going smoothly?

You say to them in a very casual, non-accusatory way: “You feeling okay?”

This throws them. They were so focused on getting their words right they didn’t really notice their own tone. They say, defensively, “Yeah. Why?”

And you go “I’m just saying: we don’t have to do this. Robbing a bank is scary. We could just… not do it.”

They are not ready for this interpretation of events and they throw it back on you “So is this YOU trying to chicken out? YOU’RE scared, aren’t you?”

And that wasn’t what you were thinking. But you hear it and adjust. So you go “Okay, I am. Let’s not do this man! I’m freaked out!”

And —- as you are saying that —- you change yourself into someone who’s only going along with things because you’re his brother, and you’re trying to impress him. They wouldn’t say yes. They wouldn’t adjust. But you do, and so the scene is good.

Be The One Who Changes

Everyone wants to talk. Be the one who changes.

That’s active listening!

In my opinion! Let’s hear your thoughts on these terms in the comments, please.

Burlington, VT in July

I’ll be in Burlington, Vermont the first week of July. I’m doing a workshop through Vermont Comedy Arts! Tuesday July 7. What better way to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday than by practicing being a deliberate fool with yours truly?

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

Improvisers describe themselves as playing either “game” or “relationship.” It’s a false choice and a dumb way to put it, but this terminology sticks.

A better way to differentiate improv styles: how INTENTIONAL is your improv?

We describe game versus relationship something like this:

Game focuses on unusual things, patterns and heightening. That’s UCB style. Relationship makes choices about the dynamic between characters, and assumes good things will follow. That’s “Chicago” style.

But here’s what this looks like in practice:

• game players steer, and

• relationship players avoid steering

That’s not built into the way these different types of improv are taught, but that’s what seems to happen.

A Week In Toronto

I thought of this last week when teaching in Toronto. I taught / coached six sessions for 21 hours total. Many players were new, many were seasoned. Most had trained at multiple improv schools: Second City, Bad Dog, Assembly, iO, UCB and others.

In general, there was not too much “game of the scene” training.

The classes had lots of passionate students who loved improv and were excited to try new things. It was really fun. There lots of hanging out before and after classes talking improv, and sharing stories of teachers and shows that people liked. It was an improv nerd party.

I got asked many times: “what do you notice about Toronto improv?” I didn’t see enough to really know. But I can say what I noticed about the 70 people I saw over 21 hours while in the city of Toronto.

My impression was this: people were very hesitant to steer the scene.

Like, they didn’t want to break from the pack. Scenes tended to be “we’re all in this together” weird world scenes.

There was terrific agreement at the top. People reflexively accepted each other’s choices. They also treated everything as if it were emotionally important even before they knew what was going on. This made for really pleasing beginnings.

Then people would not make things specific. There would be no “why” and no philosophy. People did not want to challenge things that might not make sense. They would assume it would get explained later, but it often would not.

Happy Strange Worlds

So you’d have happy strange worlds that would dead end.

I am making this example up, and it’s a bit exaggerated, but something like this. Say the suggestion is “pocket.”

Dad: “Honey, I got new blue jeans today.”

Mom: “Oh dear, I’m so happy for you! Let me see!”

Dad: (spins around) “And that’s not all. I got you a pair too.”

Mom: “For me? Why, I’m the happiest girl in all of Jeansville.”

Dad: “That’s my girl!” (hug)

(improviser enters) Kid: “Daddy! Are we all getting jeans?”

Dad: “You betcha!” (throws a pair)

(improviser enters) Dog: “Woof!”

Dad: “Roscoe, I couldn’t forget you! Here’s some doggy jeans!” (throws a pair, dog improviser dances)

(edit)

Fun. But also hard to sustain.

It’s very funny to give notes after a happy absurd scene like this. You are such a truly annoying buzzkill to say “But what do jeans MEAN in this world? Is that like a luxury car or a box of chocolates? Also, why is the town called Jeansville if no one has jeans?”

Again, I’m talking about folks who have studied at different schools playing together for the first time with a teacher they don’t know. I’m SURE there was caution in people’s play because folks didn’t want to be impolite to strangers! And the scenes were not all like this.

But I did see this type of scene several times in several groups/classes.

Doubt First, Agree Later

The scenes I see in Los Angeles are different. There’s a lot of frankly pretty bad agreement at the top of scenes. Everyone is so ready to put a spin on things they forget to simply accept and say yes. And things are unimportant until proven otherwise.

It’s a “I’ll say yes once you’ve earned it” vibe.

But players DO notice holes in logic. They do offer personal thoughts and takes. They impose opinions and philosophies onto others. They have NO fear of breaking off from the pack and calling stuff out. You can feel a grounded intelligent world in these scenes.

Here’s a version of the blue jeans scene that I might expect to see in a level four class here in Los Angeles.

Dad: “Honey, I got new blue jeans today.”

Mom: (shrugs) “Okay. And?”

Dad: “Well, you know, I’ve been saving up for them! Like we talked about!”

Mom: “Oh right. You grew up in a family that never had jeans.”

Dad: “Right. Because of religion.”

Mom: “I always forget that. Your religious family (huge pause) Anyway. Did you bring me what I asked for?”

Dad: “I only got you jeans. “

Mom: “Dear, why would you do that? I need medicine for my cancer!”

Dad: “I forgot.”

(edit)

And the notes for this type of scene are like this: “Why don’t these people like each other? And how come they don’t know anything about each other?” Prickly characters, ready to pounce on mistakes.

But the world of the scene feels pleasantly grounded. The players seem ready to speak their minds.

I’M Weird? Maybe YOU’RE Weird

In both LA and Toronto, I saw a common tendency for players to point out unusual things in other characters before themselves.

Like, people are faster to go “Wow, that’s weird how you do [THAT WEIRD THING]” before they might say “By the way, I do [THIS WEIRD THING].”

So I run my “be a fool” exercises.

In LA, these exercises have been pretty successful at least as far as creating scenes that the class enjoys doing and watching.

In Toronto, though students eagerly tried them, it felt a bit more like a chore. Maybe making yourself a “fool” feels like you’re breaking away from the group. Maybe, compared to a weird happy world, it feels selfish. Or maybe I just explained the exercise badly!

Other Toronto Things

I talked about these observations with a few of the groups and it was really fun to hear everyone’s thoughts. It felt like everyone has studied with many different teachers and so everyone has their own individualized version of improv, drawn from many places.

Thanks to Alfred Chow who helped me set up my workshops! He is not responsible for any dumb ideas I may have said on this page! Thank you Alfred!

I also got to do a few shows while I was there.

Thanks to Gary at Comedy Bar for letting me and Lindsey Mullan be part of Catch-23, which is (sort of) a short form competition show. I was very nervous. But Lindsey led the scenes and the audience was really supportive and great.

Also thanks to Comedy Bar Danforth for letting me do “Hines and You” where I improvised with anyone who got on stage. I was inspired by (i.e. was copying) the show I’ve seen Scott Adsit do in NYC. Lots of students from my classes went. It was a surprisingly cooperative and orderly show.

And I got to perform with Comedy Bang Bang the final night. Truly the happiest and most fun improv show I get to do, for the best audiences.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

If you’re IN Toronto, I’ve got three shows starting tonight (Friday).

• Friday May 22: Catch 23 - 9pm, Comedy Bar Bloor St, with Lindsay Mullan.

• Saturday May 23: Hines and You - 9:30pm Comedy Bar Danforth. I do improv with whoever comes on stage

• Monday May 25 - one more

Come out!

My theater has started to post clips from shows onto an Instagram channel (@worldsgreatestimprov).

One went up last week, featuring Jim Woods and May Darmon. It’s a great example of pivoting away from what you thought the scene was going to be about. It’s also a great example of two really funny people being able to just enjoy a moment.

Let’s drill down into it way too much!

If I recall correctly, there was a bit in the opening about someone cutting themselves badly while shaving at their in-law’s house for Thanksgiving.

Jim steps out and sets up that he’s shaving at his partner’s house. But then he uses a phrase that strikes May as a little odd. “The mains will be coming out any time.”

First May just repeats it. It’s a bit odd to her, right? She’s saying “is this really a phrase?”

Jim also repeats it, and maybe doesn’t know what, if anything, could be funny about it. Watching in the audience, I knew what he meant. But I also recognized it as just slightly awkward.

Then May shifts her energy. By the second time she says “the mains are about to come out” she’s treating it as if it’s the highest stakes situation imaginable. How DARE Jim be shaving when the mains are about to come out??

It’s so funny, my god, I love this scene.

My question to you, dear reader: is this GAME or is it RELATIONSHIP?

It’s both, of course.

There’s a clear game here: playing a low stakes thing like a high stakes thing. Let’s play that dinner being ready (the mains about to come out) as if it’s an incredibly important moment.

But it’s also a character moment. May’s exasperation is so funny. She’s able to both undermine Jim (“you’re fixing that NOW?”) but also make fun of her own character, for making such a big deal of a small moment “The mains are about to come out, and you’re shaving NOW?”.

Jim plays his character so funny. “I don’t want to look like a mountain man! You hate my beard!”

It’s all (basically) low stakes as high stakes. It’s why the fight is funny. These actors KNOW, on some level, they’re being ridiculous to get so upset over this. They’re allowing their own characters to look foolish.

It’s NOT a “premise” in the way you are trained at, say UCB. Neither Jim nor May intentionally set up this moment. They are pivoting around a surprise phrasing.

He didn’t MEAN it as a funny thing. But when May starts to have fun, he’s able to ride the drama for fun.

I love it so much. I’ve watched it like 10 times. When May just rests her hand on her face, it’s so good. (EDITED: I just realized that you can hear me cackle on the recording when she does it).

It’s a fight, but it’s funny. These are two funny people who know how to play a moment.

How would you analyze this scene?

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

By Matt Haines

She had a bad idea. Photo by Kalistro

In October of last year, I remember smacking my head and muttering, “yes! That makes total sense!” I had just read Will Hines’ newsletter on Bad Idea initiations. Later, I even took a one-day workshop with Will on this very topic. To simplify greatly, choose to be foolish, choose to make a bad decision: choose a Bad Idea.

Up until then, I was a little fuzzy about what made a good “First Unusual Thing” (FUT) for a scene. I felt like this explanation locked it in. No more stupid initiations like “I have a six-legged dog” or “I’m exceptionally tall.” I now understood how to initiate with playable unusual things. The goal is to have a pattern of behavior that is absurd and that you can heighten. Having Bad Ideas gives you repeatable behaviors. Not just unusual things.

Except…I found I was kind of a one-note Bad Idea generator. My first impulse was usually something destructive and often involved self-harm (not sure what that says about my mental health). If the prompt was “fork”, I would stick it in my eye. If the prompt was “xylophone”, I would skin my knee on it. I needed a way to come up with better Bad Ideas. Which is an oxymoron, I know.

Since then, I’ve been working on tools to come up with a wider variety of playable Bad Idea FUTs. I have four that I use all the time, and a fifth one that I recently added. You can practice these on your own with a prompt generator, or you can use them in practice sessions and shows.

Wrong Emotion

You might have heard a variation on this one: pick a “strong and wrong” emotion. Come in with a big emotion that is wrong for the prompt. If the prompt is “floor”, initiate with “This tile pattern is going to change my life!”

However! It doesn’t have to be strong. Simply wrong is enough. For example, you could initiate with “I’m looking forward to mom’s funeral today.” It’s a small emotion, but it’s certainly unusual. Besides, if you initiate a scene with a big emotion, you might find yourself with nowhere to go when it’s time to heighten.

When you have an unusual emotion about something, it’s easy to justify and create a POV that generates more behaviors. Honestly, this is the one I turn to the most.

Wrong Approach

I think this is probably closest to what Will does (but hopefully he’ll correct me if I’m wrong). Choose to do or use something incorrectly. Not wildly incorrectly, but only slightly. If the prompt is “carpet” (I’m not sure why my prompt generator is so focused on flooring today), you might initiate with “I’ve carpeted the walls and ceiling of the bathroom.” Unusual, yes. Ripe for justifying, yes.

I do struggle a little bit with this approach though (which is why I came up with Substitution, below). My brain struggles with multiple steps, like…how do I use carpet? It keeps my feet warm by being on the floor. How can I use it wrong? I can stick it in my eye! (There’s the self-harm thing again.) I’m slow-brained, so it’s too many steps to go through when I’m in a scene. And by then my scene partner is talking about their six-legged dog and I’m screwed.

Confession

This one’s an oldie but a goodie. I’ve seen teachers use it in practice drills for years. In the middle of a grounded base-reality scene, throw in the line, “I have a confession to make…”. It forces you to come up with something unusual on the spot.

However, you can use this same embarrassment and admittance of weirdness without saying “I have a confession.” If the prompt is “cash register”, you can initiate with “Hey, um…I just wanted to tell you that I’ve been adding some of my own cash into the register.” It’s a confession without the word confession in it.

Wrong Status

Pride, shame and jealousy. Makes me think of the article Will wrote about using the Seven Deadly Sins to justify your FUT. Except this is used to generate that FUT in the first place.

Be inordinately proud of something mundane. Prompt: nose. “I finally got that nose job so I could be king of this family.” Prompt: fake money. “I admit I’ve been stealing from the Monopoly box, but I wanted to throw some cash around at the club tonight.”

Or you can go the opposite direction, if the word is something that would normally convey high status. Prompt: crown. “During the coronation, do I have to wear the crown? It’s embarrassing.”

You can also turn it all into jealousy. Make it about wanting status over someone else. If the prompt is “sandwich”, you could initiate with, “Oh great. You’re showing off your turkey sandwich again and making me feel like a peasant.”

This one overlaps with “Wrong Emotion” a little because, yes, there are emotions involved. But the difference is that status dynamics can generate behaviors very quickly. If you’re jealous of someone, you might do something really foolish. Whereas if you’re really happy, you might just sit there and smile.

Substitution

This one is kind of my replacement for “Wrong Approach” and something I started using recently. Basically, you think to yourself, “Instead of using/doing [prompt], I use/do _________.” It’s replacing the prompt with something absurd, rather than simply using it wrong.

You want more examples, right? (Am I the only one who writes with a prompt generator open in another tab?)

Prompt: cooking pot

“I thought I’d just hold the chicken over the fire with my bare hands.”

Prompt: tree

“I’ve decided to build the treehouse on the ground.”

Prompt: hat

“Hats are fine, but I think I get better sun protection with this mongoose on my head.”

Yes, there’s a certain amount of overlap with “Wrong Approach.” For me, it’s easier to replace the prompt with something else, rather than to think about ways to use it wrong.

How to…

So how do I use these? I will often pick one of these tools to focus on when I’m heading to a practice. Also, I’m a big fan of solo practice to keep my mind sharp (which you know if you’ve read my previous guest newsletter). There’s nothing like driving to work and talking foolish nonsense to yourself.

These are all just filters to make your decision-making less stressful. When it comes to shows, I don’t bother trying to preplan using these tools. Hopefully, I’ve practiced enough that the best Bad Idea pops into my brain. And usually, it does!

Thanks, Matt! If you want to pitch a guest column, send me a few sentences of what you’d write about and what improv teaching/performing credits you have at will@wgimprovschool.com.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

I’m actually not sure if Dayton is considered part of the Rust Belt.

Anyway. I had a lovely time - thank you Michael Busch and Kevin Carter and the many other people at both places who were such gracious hosts.

Both cities have beautiful brick buildings in formerly industrial areas being re-purposed for artsy stuff. It gave me Greenpoint, Brooklyn vibes.

In Cleveland I taught four classes and did a show where I did twelve six-minute two prov sets with names drawn out of a bucket. Really fun, and not as tough as I feared since I let the other players do all the initiating and editing.

After the show I hung out with some of their performers and we talked about personality of Cleveland suburbs (I won’t say how they described my hometown of Parma) and favorite comedy movies and history of improv local improv groups. Really fun.

I also stopped in a bagel store and saw this bucket of salt for melting ice next to the coffee creamer area — felt extremely northern Ohio.

Cleveland improvisers were quick to self-deprecate. It made for very funny characters. I ran my “find a fool” workshops and they were very ready to play foolish characters. Maybe it’s only Los Angeles where people don’t want to do that? Imposters Theater is relatively new (5 years?) and everyone there is still flush with the thrill of discovering improv.

In Dayton I taught eight (!) workshops in two days. Thank God everyone was nice or I would have died. I coached their two veteran groups but really wasn’t ready to offer any helpful observations. When people are confident and good and experienced, you need a few shows to really learn how they tick!

Black Box (Dayton) has a 75 seat house, and both their Friday and Saturday night shows were packed. Both nights have two hour shows. They do fifty minute sets with an intermission. They have a well stocked bar and the crowd was warm.

First night in Dayton they did a set called “Misheard” which is a version of a “last line / first line.” Each scene starts with a “misheard” version of the last line of the previous scene. It forces you to start scenes organically. I noticed that the games often get labaled with tag-outs. Like two people do a scene where they yes-and WITHOUT trying to frame anything up, and then the tag names a game. It’s an interesting way to have “game of the scene” without an opening.

I was born outside of Dayton (any Kettering Hospital fans out there?) and lived there for year one of my human existence. I didn’t remember it!

There was a very cool pub called Barrel Street down the road from Black Box with good NA beer and this John Lennon / Wu Tang poster. We went there both nights after the shows, and talked comic books and comedy. Extremely fun.

Biggest hit in BOTH cities was me decribed Alex Berg’s “hand thing” metaphor for justification.

Slightly annoying post script is bad weather cancelled my flight home and I got rebooked to an all night layover in Charlotte. So I’m sitting in an empty airport food court, where it feels like Act I of a zombie movie. Check back here in a week to see if I survived.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

She also created an app for improv coaches that collects exercises from lots of place, including this Substack! You can create lessons plans, search by exercise type and other cool stuff. Check it out at: https://improvcoach.app

If you want to pitch a guest column, send me a few sentences of what you’d write about and what improv teaching/performing credits you have at will@wgimprovschool.com.

You probably know the level 1 “three line scenes” exercise.

Get the class into two lines. The person from the left line does the first line, the person from the right responds, and then the person from the left does a third. Goal is to have a who/what/where. Boom, that’s it. Then the people go to the end of the opposite line.
https://willhines.substack.com/p/mechanical-notes-v-descriptive-notes

That is a solid exercise that helps beginners build base reality.

This exercise is for intermediate students who already know how to build a base reality, but stall at the top of their scenes because nobody wants to make a choice.

Exercise: Amazing Three line scenes

Ask 2 players to try and create an “amazing” scene in just 3 lines. They can take as long as they want and the lines can be as long as they like.

It’s really hard and they’ll want to play it again to get it right.

3 lines forces every word to count. You can’t afford to waste a line on a question, vagueness, or putting the action on your partner.

Often players default to stalling & deflecting. They wait to see what the other person gives them. Three lines exposes that instantly.

Coaching notes:

What did you spend your lines on? Did you establish who, what, where? Did you move the scene forward or just react? Did you burn a line by asking a question?

Modification:

The first player starts with object work, the second player comes in and says something that’s not related to the object work (this is the first line).

Example:

A: OMG I won the Irish lottery !
B: I will marry you, I sad I wouldn’t, and I threw up a bit when you asked. But I will marry you
A: Amazing, we can spend the 100 Euros I won on the wedding!

Thanks, Caroline!

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Sometimes improviser use the idea of “framing” to try and write the whole scene themselves. That is… not good.

Framing is when you call attention to someone else’s unusual behavior. It’s a term I first heard of from the UCB Manual in 2013. (“letting your scene partner know you think they’ve done something unusual.”).

Framing: I Hear You

Often you’re telling the other person that you’ve heard them. Like “Got it. I see that you’re trying to be unusual.”

Player 1: I shouldn’t have to pay taxes. I am an artist.

Player 2: (framing) I think you’re taking the idea of “artist” a little too far.

Framing: Did You Notice This?

Sometimes you frame behavior the other person did by accident.

Player 1: I shouldn’t have to pay taxes. I am an artist. Just like Paul Bunyan.

Player 2: (framing) Wasn’t Paul Bunyan a lumberjack? Also fictional?

Player 1: (changing now because of the frame) I consider lumberjacks to be artists. I long to be a lumberjack. I also long to be fictional.

Framing: I Write Your Part

But sometimes people use “framing” to just full-on write the other person’s part for them.

Player 1: Welcome home, honey! I’ve made you some eggs.

Player 2: (way overly framing) Eggs? For dinner? You love eggs too much. Is this because you were raised by a chicken? You’re weird.

That’s not framing. Framing is noticing something you actually did, not creating new stuff. This example is gifting, if anything, and it’s too much. Player 2 is forcing a choice onto someone who did not make it.

Please, You Be Weird Now

The most common example of this is when a scene starts slowly, and one person gets impatient. So they force a weird interpretation onto someone else.

Player 1: We’ll never get this attic clean.

Player 2: I know. But now that grandma is gone, someone has to clean up this house.

Player 1: Yeah.

Player 2: (does object work)

Player 1: (getting nervous) Wow, you’re really obsessed with that box. You love boxes. Is this because Grandma was a box? You’re weird.

This is the aspect of “game” improv I don’t like: where someone tries to write both parts.

Some people are quick to “see” potential games in a scene. So they force the game before it’s really arrived. They initiate huge ideas that basically tell their partner how to react. They walk on to scenes and change what’s happening.

I prefer a soft foggy game that everyone is playing together, rather than one person’s very clear idea that no one else really gets.

Ordering A Meal

Good framing should feel like you’re helping each other pick what to order at a restaurant. You’re checking in with each other. “Maybe we do a scene about this? How about this?”

Refuse The Frame

My colleague Sarah Claspell pointed out to me that If someone does “frame” you with something that feels off, you can refuse it.

Player 1: Welcome home, honey! I’ve made you some eggs.

Player 2: (way overly framing) Eggs? For dinner? You love eggs too much. Is this because you were raised by a chicken? You’re weird.

Player 1: No, I just thought breakfast for dinner would be a fun change of pace. This is normal. How was did your big presentation go?

You are still “yes anding” the reality. You are yes-anding the idea that Player 2 is your partner - that’s why you’re being gentle with your refusal.

Gift Yourself

I don’t mind when people “force” a big game onto themselves.

Player 1: We’ll never get this attic clean.

Player 2: I know. But now that grandma is gone, someone has to clean up this house.

Player 1: Let me see what’s in this box. (pause) You know what? I’m obsessed with this box. I love boxes. Maybe Grandma was secretly a box. I’m weird.

That feels fair. If you’re gonna force a game out of nowhere, you should play it first.

But I see a lot of nervous verbal new players who can’t wait to force a game onto someone else! It feels like they’re too cautious to make a big choice for themselves, so they ask others to do it for them.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• World’s Greatest Improv (YouTube channel): My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. Subscribe to watch! It’s all free!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

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New improvisers lob accusations at each other a lot. They make choices with a tinge of anger. Everyone responds with a wall of defensiveness.

• “Aren’t you ready yet? Your parents are going to be here!!”

• “Come on, help me with these dishes!”

• “Oh, so you went to the party without me!?”

Everyone is mildly panicked. Not the characters. The actors.

False fights start quickly. Scenes get stuck on mundane events.

Though if you pay attention they’re also doing a lot right. They’re choosing base realities. They are assuming a shared history. They’re listening and yes-anding the facts. They’re relatable. That’s all good stuff.

But the panic blocks the fun.

The solution is the phrase “my bad.”

If the group is too green to DEEPLY say yes to accusations, a simple “my bad” is a great version of “yes” that stops the fight, but accepts the facts.

“My bad” also keeps things light and somehow pulls fun choices out of people.

• “Aren’t you ready yet? Your parents are going to be here!!”
  ”My bad, I just can’t pick a tie.”

• “Come on, help me with these dishes!”
  ”My bad, I was distracted by this… this book.”

• “Oh, so you went to the party without me?”
  ”My bad, I should have invited you. I was worried you’d think it was lame.”

“My bad” is easy, even when you’re a bit nervous. Softens everything so you can really start taking choices in.

WGIS YouTube Channel

My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. We remain in the early stages, but you can subscribe to our YouTube Channel World’s Greatest Improv to see some now. Our plan is for most things to be free. Free is good, right? This Sunday at “Living Room Living Room” we have NY improv luminary Kevin Hines who also happens to be my brother.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.

Today I present a simple, tried-and-true exercise: “How Is Today Different?”

It’s been around a while. “Game of the scene” type exercises have replaced it to some degree. But “how is today different” can help when the word “game” breaks your brain.

It’s simple: Two people up. They get a suggestion and do a scene. The goal is to discover “how today is different” for the characters. That’s it.

A wide range of things satisfies “something different”:

• Someone at work realizes their regular chair is gone

• Someone is the 10,000th customer at their regular coffee shop

• A spouse tells their partner for the first time that they don’t like watching movies

• Parents tell their teenage child they’re getting divorced

It doesn’t have to be comedic. Or even fantastical. Just emotionally important to the people in the scene.

After the scene is over, the coach asks “How was today different for these characters?” And if the players can answer that question, they did it.

Something Must Matter

It’s a little harder than it sounds. Many people will do scenes where NOTHING matters. They’re trying to play with confidence, so they don’t let anything rattle them. They’re trying not to force anything fake, so they stay very small. They wave things off. They solve problems.

This exercise forces them to have at least ONE thing that matters.

Someone learns something, or confesses something or speaks their mind.

Game Before Game

It’s also a proto-”game of the scene” exercise. If something breaks the pattern of what’s expected it’s often funny or close to being funny.

A nice thing about this exercise is the “unusual thing” tends to be very emotionally grounded.

If you ask new players “have something unusual” in their scenes, they go SO big. Doctors telling people they have an hour to live, parents disowning their children because the children don’t like right kind of pizza, etc. Everything gets so huge.

If you ask new players “show us that today is different” they do things more like a dramatic play.

Game Done Simply

When I started studying improv in the mid-1990s this exercise was more prevalent. Once “game of the scene” spread, I heard it less.

I’ve been missing it lately. “How is today different” is nicely OPEN. It doesn’t care if you are voice of reason or not, if you justify or not. Just have something different happen.

It’s good if your brain is breaking, or feel like you’re trying a bit too hard.

WGIS YouTube Channel

My improv theater is beginning to stream shows. We’re still in the early stages, but you can subscribe to our YouTube Channel World’s Greatest Improv to see some now. Our plan is for most things to be free. There’s a few up there now, including our Sunday night show “Living Room Living Room.” The recent episode ends with a terrific scenes between Dave Theune and Eugene Cordero.

Plugs

• The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC! You can join our mailing list if you want our weekly announcement of shows.

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print (also on my web site for more if you don’t want to buy from Amazon). It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re short of funds and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.