I have a hard time talking out my NCT shows sometimes. Partly because my fellow performers my read this and I have a problem singling people out and talking about them publically on the internet.
I hope to use this blog just to express my opinions about Improv Comedy and let you know what my philosophy of comedy is.
Our show is the basic improv games show. We have two teams, we play games and there's a winner declared at the end.
This past Saturday we had some good scene and some not so good scenes. The difference between the good and not-so-good was clear. It's realism. Sometimes when a scene isn't working or if one has no idea where to take a scene, or sometimes to be cute, we decide to take become aliens, animals or inanimate objects. Some performed can take on these persona and do well but most can't.
The real problem with taking on non-person roles is that the audience can not relate with these characters. To me, scenes that really work are scenes that the average person relate to with conflicts that the audience has gone through themselves. We've all have been nervous about asking a girl out. Felt angry when betrayed. Fell in love with someone close to us. When an audience can connect with the conflict on stage they will not only laugh but be emotionally tied to the scene.
When playing these improv games, my philosophy is that you're actually performing a dramatic improv and allowing the game to make the scene funny. In other words, improv is simple because you don't have to be funny. Allow the schtick to make the scene funny.
Alan Ng
