How Do We Raise The Improv Ceiling?

Game raises the floor, but what pushes us higher?

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

I had two meetings this week with improv teachers, each with very different perspectives on how to teach well. After them I realized: the last 15 years of improv teaching has been about the micro level of teaching improv. It’s time we worked more on the macro level of inspiring people to do great things.

The Macro Discussion

First, I met with some improv teachers who’ve been doing it a while. Folks with backgrounds that encompass more than one theater, and more than one generation at those theaters. I had asked them to brainstorm ways we could be teaching better at my improv school (not just mine, but the one I co-own).

We ended up talking about shows. Ones that could push improv teams to be more ambitious. We talked about things like The Harold and other forms, and how they —- as a whole — could be an impressive performance.

In Los Angeles, there aren’t many opportunities for ambitious shows. Time slots are short, audiences are small. Shows tend to be an excuse to make good scenes. There isn’t a ton of thought put to the show as a whole.

As we talked, topics included:

• what can be done when a group works on a form for a while?

• what can be done when a show can go for a long time?

• can you get the audience/players to believe that improv shows can be magic?

• what did Harolds used to look like? What are shows we’ve seen that inspired us?

• how could we create a chance for talented performers to achieve something great?

The Micro Discussion

Later in the week, I met with a group of improv coaches to talk about the teams they’re working with. These were UCB-trained performers who’ve come up in the last 15 years.

The discussion was focused on making scenes better. We focused on specific mechanics. How to initiate off of an opening, how to respond in a way that keeps things grounded. Terms we could use to encourage good heightening. Exercises to remind folks what it feels like to play it real.

Topics included:

• Forcing newer teams to follow specific formulas when initiating

• Exercises that practice labelling unusual things

• The effect of terms like “heightening” versus terms like “support.”

• Students who are in their head, how to inspire confidence

You can see the difference in this list versus the previous one. It’s so specific and focused.

I was amazed at how many effective tools there are to make scenes better, on a micro level. This group of coaches all had impressive pieces of advice, terms and techniques to understand the mechanics of comedy within a scene.

Raising The Floor

For me, the most interesting developments in the last 20 years of improv teaching has been more about the “micro” level.

It’s been ideas, largely coming out of the UCB Theatre, that have to do with understanding the comedy of the scene. It started with the idea of “base reality” and “game” and then went deeper. There’s labelling, justifying, how to do a good tag, initiating seconds beats (time dash or analogous), pulling idea from an opening, clearly expressing a point of view, the difference between premise and game, the difference between heightening and exploring, list scenes, mapping scenes, weird worlds, genre games, gang up scenes, one-upping scenes, ad game scenes, etc.

These ideas have revolutionized improv. They give specific, workable strategies for making sure your scenes are funny and real.

My hunch is that before the UCB, the strategy for good scenes was much more vague. “Say yes, play it real, make active choices and good things will happen.” Macro advice.

If that’s true, then it was a revolution to go from that to something mechanical and reliable, like “initiate a base reality, introduce an unusual thing from your opening, then do if-this-is-true-then-what-else-is-true.”

What this revolution did was: raise the floor.

(It was Jim Woods who made that observation. I’m not citing most of the people I met with because I’m not sure I can accurately summarize their opinions, but Jim said to me “game raised the floor” and I think he’s dead-on.)

Even a new team of green improvisers, if they play game with the UCB technique, have a decent chance of doing a scene with recognizable comedy in it. When you have a whole community that had studied these ideas together, you quickly create like minds and successful shows.

These are tools that work!

But I’ve come to realize it’s also limiting.

What About The Ceiling?

Along with all the strengths, this focus on the micro lowers the ceiling.

Focus moved away from art and more towards comedy. It became about the scenes and not the whole. Thirds beats in Harolds are lightning fast. The only point of an opening is what ideas it gives you, not how it feels as a performance. Shows have gone from 40 minutes to 30 minutes to 20 minutes.

Certainly the UCB’s effect on the improv world has been something amazing: they’ve made garden-variety improv shows funny. We’ve lowered our tolerance for indecisive crap! I don’t want new teams failing to make decisions, being so averse to “comedy” that they forget to be entertaining.

But here in LA, where the UCB dominates — where are the shows being done by great people who are not in a hurry to get to the joke? Who don’t mind truly not knowing where they are going?

Research and Development

What we need in modern improv theaters is something that amounts to a research and development wing. A place for good improvisers to try freaky stuff that might not work, but could achieve something magical. A show that is allowed to fail. Veterans who are required to rehearse.

The UCB’s second stage “the Annex” is the perfect place for these kind of shows.

If my school gets a space, we will dedicate some nights to shows that are trying to raise the ceiling.

Here’s my micro strategies to push the macro:

• Longer shows, especially shows with longer third acts.

• Veteran teams rehearsing to do experimental shows.

• A performance night billed as experimental, to set expectations.

I wonder if there is a way to codify these things. Just like how “if this is true, then what is true” revolutionized how to play comedy in an improv scene — is there something similar that can guide what we need to do to shape a show as a whole.

A Few Examples, Including…. Myself!

There is a small movement of these shows happening here in LA.

At the risk of devolving into plugs, I’m part of one. Ian Roberts and I do a show called “High Functioning” every Saturday 7pm in the UCB Annex. We started rehearsing with Craig Cackowski in February, and we have practiced doing improv in ways that force us out of our personal comfort zones. The show runs almost an hour. There’s no opening. There’s no banter at the top. It’s a hard show to do. It’s also interesting and fun. We sometimes crush it and something do less than crush it.

And this is with Ian Roberts, the guy who helped create the movement that (not on purpose) turned our focus away from the macro and towards the micro!

Our coach Craig is doing a show with his wife Carla, Bob Dassie and Stephnie Weir. It’s called “Weird Tuxedo.” (combination of Bob and Stephnie’s show WeirDass and Craig and Carla’s Orange Tuxedo). They’re rehearsing, putting on a show, stretching themselves.

Dominic Dierkes, Jon Gabrus and Ben Rodgers are doing “Pretty Funny” — a monthly show at the Lyric Hyperion. It’s half montage, half monoscene. They’re rehearsing, pushing themselves, trying to make each one great.

I’m sure there’s others. Tell me what shows are aiming for something great in the comments.

Plugs, Ongoing

• High Functioning - Ian Roberts and I do an hour of improv EVERY SATURDAY 7pm at the UCB Annex. See this video for Ian and I showing you where the UCB Annex is.

• 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.

• Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Comic book podcast, hosted by my brother Kevin and I. We are about to start coverage of the late 1990s iteration of Human Target by Peter Milligan. Subscribe for bonus episodes!

• Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles - monthly deep dive on a little known indie band from Liverpool called The Beatles. We’re doing Mind Games re-release. Subscribe for access to back episodes!