Headless Harolds

what's a Harold like with no opening?

Photo by Yahor Urbanovich on Unsplash

Last year, I discussed in these pages that the Harold is too long, that there’s too much emphasis on Premise Improv in the LA scene, and that I’m sick of openings.

Well, the blessing of running your own improv school is you can ask your house teams to try the improv experiments you’re interested in. So for this year, we at WGIS have asked our house teams to try “Headless Harolds” - Harolds without an opening.

The results are really interesting!

I will use the term “Premise Harolds” to describe a Harold where you have an opening, and you’re trying to find clear games in your first beats. You could also think of these as “UCB style Harolds.”

Summary

First beats are more grounded and have better agreement. But players are a little lost and unconfident without games from an opening. Overall, Headless Harolds are harder than I expected. Solution is either to save them for veteran teams OR worry less about game when you do them.

Pros

Better Agreement in First Beats

Without an opening, the performers rely more on each other. Eye contact is way up comapred to premise Harolds. Choices are more tightly bound to the previous line. Anecdotally, I think there’s more peas-in-a-pod scenes — which isn’t necessarily better, but I think that’s interesting.

Simpler, More Grounded First Beats

Without an opening to honor, people start with simpler base realities. There’s fewer scenes that require four or five lines just to establish what’s going on. I’m thinking of things like “Hey, you know how we’re co-workers at this rock quarry and I have kids and that I really want my kids to be really funny?” and there’s more “Can’t wait to get into this club.” Not that simple is always better, but in general the players create realities they understand and can live in more easily

Cons

Less Confident

We direct our players to find games and heighten them. But without an opening, they have to simultaneously build a reality and recognize what’s odd about it as it’s being created. Although all improvisers do this on some level, it’s tough for newer teams to do this together. An opening lets them agree on a few funny ideas before the scenes begin. To my surprise, I find that newer and even intermediate teams need an opening if you want them to find games.

Neither Pro Nor Con

After the first beats, Headless Harolds feel a lot like Premise Harolds.

Takeaways

First of all, I’m so proud that so many students and coaches were willing to try this difficult form. Everyone seemed excited to try a variation on the Harold. In general, I’m reminded that people who like doing improv like tackling challenges. Our teams Burner Phone, the Zetas and WHOPPER WHOPPER (you love improv team names, right?) are tackling Headless Harolds.

We’re lucky enough to also have some teams in our roster still using openings. Dog Pile and Gravy Day are doing great shows with openings. Our Friday night show is a little laboratory where we watch what a Harold feels like with an opening, or without.

(“Dog Pile” is a very improvy team name. I dig it.)

For a brand new team, a Headless Harold is probably too much. Everyone is getting to know each other, and the first beats get too challenging without an opening. You COULD, I think, simply say “don’t worry about finding game” — focus on agreement and building a reality. But I personally WANT the teams to find comedic games, so for me this is not an option. So for a new team, an opening is probably the way to go.

But I would still love to see veteran teams tackle this form!

Solution 1: Enjoy the Discovery

But if you are going to try Headless Harolds — I have a few tips.

The main note I suggest is to slow down in the first beats and enjoy the discovery.

Something about the Harold makes teams rush to find a “thing” right away. A game, a twist, a surprise, whatever. If you have an opening, you can theoretically have a “thing” in the first three lines pretty easily.

But for new teams who don’t know each other — trying to make a “thing” happen in the first three lines is too much. What you need to do is: enjoy the discovery.

Let the first few choices be not comedic, and let them soak in. Make sure you’ve felt them. Even a simple job interview setup can be rich with history if you take a beat.

Most of the players on our teams who are doing Headless Harolds also do sets on indie nights. They do short sets usually without a form or an opening. In those sets, they seem to enjoy the initial few discoveries. But in a Harold, there’s unspoken pressure to find a grander idea.

Slowing down, enjoying the process of building a base reality — helps a lot.

Solution 2: Explore History, Not The Future

My other piece of advice for Headless Harolds is to focus on history. Assume that whatever is happening - this is not the first time. You know each other, and you’ve seen this before. If you forgot to get snacks for this party, then don’t worry about finding snacks. Explore why it is you always forget snacks. That’s a shorter path to a game, usually.

This is all still new. Maybe in the long-term a Headless Harold is actually really GOOD training. Could be. I’m excited to keep working on them. I will report back!

Plugs, Fresh

• High Functioning - Ian Roberts and I are doing a 2-person improv show this Tuesday March 26 at the UCB Theatre in LA. 7:30pm. It’s called “High Functioning” which is a term Ian and I relate to a great deal! We’ve done a series of really fun rehearsals with our generous and smart coach Craig Cackowski directing us. We’re excited to try a show. Even though Ian and I have done improv for a collective 150 years we are still excited (read: a little nervous?) to work on a show and develop it! I.e. practice and get better. Thanks to UCB for letting us do this show. Come see!

Plugs, Ongoing

• Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Comic book podcast, hosted by my brother Kevin and I. We are examining Bendis/Bagley run of Ultimate Spider-Man.

• Clubhouse Fridays - WGIS’ weekly improv show. Fridays 7pm at The Clubhouse. Free!

• 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!

• How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.