Micro versus Macro: Teaching and Learning
when to go big, teaching-wise
Last week we discussed going “micro or macro” when it came to working on improv shows. Micro = making scenes better. Macro = raising the ceiling of the show as a whole.
This week I want to address the micro v macro approach when it comes to TEACHING and LEARNING. Two reasons:
When people debate different approaches to improv, they unfairly criticize “micro” strategies as if they were “macro” and vice-versa.
When people are learning improv, they hold onto “micro” strategies too long when it’s time to move on to “macro.”
Micro/Macro Definition
I’m defining micro/macro teaching: macro is general principles, micro are small actionable training wheels.
If you were teaching Buddhist principles of happiness in a macro way, you might say:
To be happier, you must let go of craving because all desire leads to suffering.
And a micro approach might be:
To be happier, make your bed first thing in the morning.
The macro one gets at a larger truth. But the micro one might be easier to do. Also easier to remember. And more fun?
In an improv class, a macro approach might be:
Every scene has a base reality and unusual thing. To increase the comedy, heighten the unusual thing.
And a micro one might be:
Make the scene about your relationship.
The Beauty Of Micro Teaching
Being a good improv teacher is knowing when to go micro versus macro. Level 1 improv classes are full of micro teaching moments.
Don’t ask questions
Don’t do teaching scenes.
Get the who/what/where out right away.
Don’t fight.
Don’t lie.
Seasoned improvisers know that NONE of these are actual rules in improv. You can ask questions, do teaching scenes, you don’t always need the who/what/where (and we don’t even call it a who/what/where - we say ‘base reality’), you can fight and you can lie.
And new teachers love to crap on these rules. They can’t wait to tell you how those beginning rules are wrong. I’ve done it. I’ve taught whole classes on un-doing those rules.
But you know what? Every single person who does improv remembers the “don’t ask questions” rule. You can take a million hours of improv, read every book, do a million shows and if someone asks you about the rules of improv —- right there at the top of your brain is “don’t ask questions.”
That’s the POWER of micro rules. No, they’re not the whole truth. But they are sticky. And if you choose them well, they can really help.
As I teach more and more I hunger for “micro” approaches. I like structured exercises for intermediate students. Things like:
Try saying “Can I be honest with you?”
Try “You know what I want to do?”
After someone confesses try saying “I knew that, and here’s why.”
Have the first few lines of a scene start with “I” “you” or “we.”
Make an emotional choice, make it bigger.
The Beauty Of Macro Teaching
But there comes a time when the power of micro teaching runs out. If you have students who are experienced, it’s time to back up and go macro. Sometimes the most helpful note you can give is something like:
It all just feels fake. Make it more real.
It feels like we’re playing scared.
Everyone is trying to hit home runs, just get on base.
These are notes I’ve had coaches tell me that helped me get out of ruts.
A lot of advanced students get too focused on the micro when it’s time for them to move on. Advanced students will come to me and say “When you are initiating off of an opening, and someone endows you as a combative voice of reason, but you don’t feel combative, should you say yes to being in a fight, or is it okay to not fight?”
And to me this is like a student of Buddhism who is obsessed with making their bed properly. It was never about the bed. It’s about letting go of desire.
It’s not about saying literal yes. It’s about committing to reality and giving honest reactions to the unusual things, wherever that takes you.
Game of The Scene: Micro and Macro
The macro principles of “game of the scene” are something like this:
If a scene is funny, then there is a base reality and one or more unusual things. If you heighten and explore the unusual things, it’s funny.
To me this is an inarguable principle. You don’t have to do anything with this if you don’t like. But it a truth about comedy. If it’s funny, then there were expectations (base reality) and something broke those expectations (unusual things). Sometimes the word unusual doesn’t feel as accurate as “silly” or “self-destructive” or “surreal” — but the basic gist of the above statement is very reliably true.
That’s macro.
The hard part of game is when you try to translate it into micro actions. Here’s where you taking the wispy nature of COMEDY and trying to lock it into formulas. You get a lot of this:
Voice of reason versus unusual (straight man / crazy man, in old parlance)
Rule of threes
“Saying why” to give yourself a justification
Lay out a PREMISE and then decide how to play it as a GAME
Peas in a pod, weird worlds
Calling out the unusual
Repeat the unusual thing, heightened
These tools are all incredibly helpful when people are first leaning about game of the scene. A lot of them are a little bigger than “micro” as they get at bigger princples (especially “say why”).
But they’re all also limited, and will steer you wrong.
The mechanics of comedy are elusive. It has so much to do with a particular actor’s natural energy, and the size of the room, and what’s happening in the news, and the life experience of the people in your crowd — that it’s REALLY dicey to capture these things in rules.
When people criticize “game of the scene” improv, they are usually criticizing someone holding onto these micro techniques too tightly.
Or they are people who don’t know the micro techniques and are dismissing them without trying. (“I don’t need to make my bed — that whole school of Buddhism is wrong!”)
The advanced student question version of getting obsessed with making the bed is something like:
“When you’re playing premise and someone endows you as an unusual thing, is it ever okay to switch and be voice of reason or do you have to play that philosophy? When is it okay to change my character’s mind? Am I allowed to heighten, or should I wait for the initiator to start?”
Even though I am sympathetic to trying to analyze scenes like this, and that it can be fun in a strange mechanical way — this is not useful. The above tools can help but you have to know they’re micro. The macro of comedy is probably just this:
Adapt to each other’s choices. Play it emotionally real. Explore the unusual.
Or, to put those macro principles in a micro strategy:
Say yes, play it real, repeat the weird part.
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!
Wow, this is so insightful, well-written, and helpful! Amazing post.