Who's The Dummy
play just below the top of your intelligence
Every improv scene is a game of “Who’s the Dummy?”
Two people step out and start a job interview scene.
“So, I hear you want a job here at this firm.”
“That’s right sir, I really think I’d fit in great here.”
And in the audience you’re waiting for a shoe to drop. And the shoe that is going to drop is: who’s the dummy?
“Dummy” being a deliberately sloppy term for “unusual one” or “foolish viewpoint.”
You have to be ready, from the moment you step out, that you might be wrong.
In that job interview scene, you want the interviewer or interviewee to be a little foolish. Maybe the interviewer really wants to talk about their time on a high school football team. Maybe the interviewee is hyper-focused on how many bidets are in the bathrooms.
Play just below the top of your intelligence.
Enjoy Mundane Accusations
Mundane accusations are EITHER someone setting up a who-what-where OR a fun chance to be a dummy.
If someone says “Honey, why didn’t you do the dishes?”
You either go “Oh I’m sorry, let me get on that.” Ending the argument and accepting the who-what-where.
OR you take the chance that you are a little bit of a dummy.
“Honey why didn’t you do the dishes?”
”I’m scared of them.”
Three Ingredients
You need three things to make an improv scene good:
agreement
reality
absurdity
Let’s express them as directives:
Say yes - adapt to others’ choices
Play it real - stay within the boundaries of emotional reality
Play the game - explore what’s unusual
The first two — agreement and reality — are more fundamental than the third.
The third — absurdity — is where the comedy is.
And the easiest way to get absurdity is to let yourself be a little foolish.
2 Wide Eyes and Furrowed Brow
(This is an exercise to practice feeling a little foolish. I’ve posted it before. But it applies here!)
The gist: Three people up. Two people keep their eyes big and wide, and the other keeps their forehead scrunched up.
Teaches: fool energy, voice of reason energy
Mechanics: This is a silly exercise that lets people have fun while trying on some different energies.
3 people up. You assign two keep their eyes wide the whole time and the other to keep their forehead furrowed. If those physicalities aren’t natural: you can replace wide eyes with smiling the whole time, and you can replace “furrowed brow” with “raised eyebrows.”
Those are the only rules. The idea is the wide eyes encourages a fool/wildcard energy and the furrowed brow encourages a skeptical energy.
Background: There’s a Steve Martin bit on his “Don’t Get Small” album where he says something like (this is from memory so it’s approximate) “People come up to me and say Steve! Martin! How can you BE so f***ing funny? And I’ll tell you. Every morning when I get dressed I put a slice of baloney into each shoe. And then I FEEL funny.” And that is the whole joke. And even though it’s silly and surreal I was convinced that there are physical / mechanical ways to bring out a mischievous feeling in people, and keeping your eyes wide / smiling is one way to do it.
Plugs
The Bozos (myself, Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell) are going to London and Stockholm.
In London, we are doing classes and shows at The Free Association and also Blanche Improv. (Shows at FA: Friday June 20 and June 21, Blanche on June 22).
In Stockholm we are doing the Midsummer Comedy Fest (June 26 through June 29) which is produced by Presens Impro.
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 (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 broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
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Great food for thought here! I don't do improv, but I write comedy. And "Who's the dummy?" is a great approach when starting a scene and searching for that comedic premise.