Funny Fortune Cookie Story

This story happened 15 years ago. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and she had been talking about trying to get back together, something I was not looking forward to.

This particular night I was out with friend, my ex being one of them and we all went to a Chinese restaurant. At the end of our meal, we got our fortune cookies.

My fortune cookie said,

"Do not try to revive and old relationship."

I laughed. My ex got upset and took my fortune away.

Well, I guess you had to be there.

Improv Comedy Theory, Part 2 - The Philosophy of the Improv Show

This Christmas, my brother gave me a $20 gift certificate to Best Buy, which was cool (although I gave him a $25 gift certificate to Best Buy for Christmas). Anyway, I love to have an excuse to shop at Best Buy. There’s not a lot to get for $20, except for bad movies.

After about 20 minutes of wandering, I saw that they had the first two seasons of Whose Line is it Anyway (British Version). Now I remember how bad the first season was, so I almost passed it up. But since you really can’t get anything for under $20 at Best Buy, I purchased the DVD set.

I suffered through the first disc. Then last night I popped in the second disc. The best part of the second disc, was the interview with the Producers Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. As an improv performer myself, I was really interested in what they had to say from a show creation. They brought up two good points when it comes to producing an improv show.

The reason Whose Line uses a host (Clive Anderson) was give the audience someone to focus attention to and act as a foil to the performers. Without the host, you have a show where performer come out and tell they are going to make you laugh and they play games. As simple as that sounds, the performers come off as arrogant. We are here to get suggestions from you and we’ll make that funny. The role of the host is to take the heat off the performers and put it on the host, who can make fun of the performers. Now the host comes off as the smart ass and the performers are likeable. This is important in improv because you have a high chance of failing on stage and if the audience likes you, they will root for you when you perform.

Awarding points was also a vital part of the show. It gave a reason to have the show. Without the points, the show becomes an improvised sketch show, which in this case now becomes a very bad sketch show. The points are actually the glue that holds the show together. The funniest part is that everyone is in on the fact that the “points don’t matter.”

I’m performing in San Diego a week from Saturday for the next 7 weeks. I’m teaching workshops those 7 weeks. Come and see me. My shows are Saturday nights 7:30 pm and 9:45 at the National Comedy Theater in San Diego, 3717 India St, San Diego. I’d love to see you there.