Look at The Game With "Soft Eyes"
don't think too much and say what you really see
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On with this week’s essay.
Naming the Game
There’s doing good improv, and then there’s labelling what was good about it.
People generally agree on whether or not an improv scenes is good. But they do NOT agree on how to say what was good about it.
It’s the labelling of art that we fight over. Far more than we fight over the art itself.
This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to “game of the scene.” If you teach game, you will ask your students “what was the game?” And everyone’s face will fall flat. They look down at their shoes. They look so hopeless.
The general answer is “we don’t know how to say it.”
Soft Eyes
My advice is to keep your answer very simple. Look at the scene with “soft eyes” and don’t get complicated. Say what it’s about.
Like, what’s the movie Jurassic Park about? You COULD say it’s about how man’s hubris to control nature ends up with nature fighting back with violence.
OR you could say it’s about dinosaurs fucking shit up.
I think the second way is better. That’s the “soft eyes” way. Sure, it’s incomplete compared to the first way. But it gets at what’s important, and it’s what the audience feels, and it’s more helpful if you’re trying to continue what’s fun about it.
Game Naming Templates
Now there ARE some recommended templates for naming a game.
Like let’s say you’ve got a scene in which the editor of the New York Times asks his editorial staff to write a serious op-ed explaining that Jerry of the Tom and Jerry cartoons is a hateful villain.
(This scene happened to me a few hours ago, so that’s why I thought of it. I wonder now if our audience had any idea who Tom and Jerry were. No matter. Onward.)
What If? - One template is “What if?” You might say the game is “What if the editor of the New York Times was obsessed with hating Jerry from Tom and Jerry?”
Instead Of - Another template is “instead of.” “Instead of focusing on important issues, the NY Times editors focuses on Jerry from Tom and Jerry.”
As If - You can also use “as if.” “A NY Times editor is passionate about Tom and Jerry as if it were a world war.”
Base Reality / Unusual Thing / Justification - This is like diagramming the grammar of the comedy. “In a NY Times editorial office (base reality), an editor wants to write about Tom and Jerry (unusual thing) and this is relatable because we get very passionate about pop culture even though it’s often meaningless. (justification)” Perhaps fun for math-brained folks, but not that useful IMO.
Keep It Simple
My advice is to just say what you thought was funny as much as you can tell. Don’t worry about encompassing the entire comedic idea.
“The NY Times guy loves Tom and Jerry.” That’s good enough for me. I think I’d even take “The NY Times guy” as an answer.
“Soft eyes” is especially helpful in the very common case where there’s really several funny things overlapping. What’s the main thing that stands out? That’s the game.
Like I did a scene in which my scene partner was a customer in the Apple Store, and I was helping him pick one out. After giving him just one simple piece of advice “you probably don’t need the most expensive phone” he said I was the best salesman he’d ever met. He offered me a job at his nearby cell phone store. He explained to me how his store used to be a Pizza Hut, but he fought to make it a T-Mobile. He said the T-Mobile corporation was so grateful he was allowed to recruit whatever salesmen he wanted.
What’s the game?
You could try “standard” ways of naming the game but I think they would all end up being too narrow. Like you’d get
“What if a guy was obsessed with making his cell phone store the most success?”
“Instead of buying a cell phone, a customer recruits the salesmen to his company.”
“A customer treats buying a cell phone as if he’s doing a job interview with the salesmen.”
These all get an aspect of what was funny. But they are too zoomed in. Trying too hard.
The game of the scene is THE GUY. The cellphone customer guy. He’s the game. That he is so in awe of the Apple Store Employee who has only said one thing about phones. Or that he goes so far for his job. He’s it. He’s the dinosaurs fucking shit up.
You want to heighten and explore? Heighten and explore him. Cut to his past. Ask him his philosophy. Try to sell him another phone. Go to his store.
Say What You See
I saw a scene where a bunch of policeman were talking about a case but they all kept saying they had to bring the case to “the commish.” The players loved that term and kept using it.
The game of that scene was “the commish.” Maybe you say the game is “saying ‘the commish’ a lot.”
That is more helpful to me than saying “The game of the scene is using cop slang too much.”
Don’t think too much. Just say what you see. This is the way!
Hey, I usually do plugs here but I’m too tired. What do you think of that? One big plug at the start and now you’re out of here at the end without having to endure more of me shilling my virutal wares! Pretty great, right? Merry Christmas!
Coming late to this (and the entire library) but this is incredibly helpful, especially to me, as my improv default setting is to be irritatingly verbose. Condensing the naming of the game feels like a tool I need to grab and use.
I really love this perspective. I think it’s a healthier mindset for performers when games are always evolving. Also a more realistic way to clock a game while on the back wall. 👏👏