I took a 3 month sabbatical from improv and I’m about to return. I miss performing so badly. While I was on my sabbatical, I pondered whether I wanted to join a team up here in Orange County. I was a little disappointed at the quality of improv in my local area. I know I’m painting myself as an improv snob and I don’t mean to. I’ve had discussions with others and I’ve come across this rarely discussed gem. There are two types of improv. I fall into one camp and most groups fall into the other.
The two types of improv are what I’ll call “structured” improv and the other is “unstructured.”
I trained with ComedySportz here on the West Coast. I would say they are structured. My current group, the National Comedy Theater, is also structured.
Most improv groups that I see are “unstructured.” They live by the motto, “Let Magic Happen.” My experience with TheaterSportz is indicative of this “magical” unstructured style. My first professional group, Just Us, was definitely unstructured. In fact, I got into arguments all them all the time. They would throw their arms up in frustration, telling me not to over think.
Before I get into the differences between the two, I will say, I like structured improv better because; you will have a high degree of success every time you perform. With unstructured, you will make people laugh, but unless your group is super talented, you are going to fail most of the time.
The National Comedy Theater in San Diego performs four shows every weekend. We usually have 80 customers in our 100 seat theater every show for all four shows. I’ve been privileged to perform for 5 straight months of sold out shows. Our success has nothing to do with star players, because we rotate every show. We also have a wide range of experience. No individual can claim to be the key of our success. We keep customers coming back because we are performing solid shows and performing solid scenes.
The key that we keep hammering away at is the structure. If we have a bad scene, which happens, we can look back at the scene and know were it went wrong. It’s because we failed to follow the structure.
Why is unstructured the wrong way to go? Let me describe it first. I’m going to use a extreme, yet common experience you’ll get when you watch an unstructured scene. In an unstructured scene, performers are given a suggestion by the audience, the performers then walk about the stage trying to figure out what to do. They call upon their best cleverness to come up with the first line. The first line is said, and the performer prays to the comedy gods, that the other person knows how to respond. Assuming this happens, the scene progress is some direction, and if you’re lucky you can progress the story, but more often than not, the direction is deemed weak by the performer and they change the direction of the scene or a third or fourth person comes on stage to save it. All at the same time, everyone is trying to be funny.
The first real problem is that the performers spend the first 30 seconds to a minute trying to figure out what the scene is about. When you place a game on top of it, then no one is focused and the performers begin to react to the game suggestions. You see this a lot in the game of theater styles. The performers start a scene about nothing, then the scene becomes a western, then porno, then Shakespeare. What happens is the scene just becomes a series of clichés of these styles. There is no story thread that can be strung throughout the game.
On the other hand, structured improv focuses on the scene and creating a story. The improv game is overlaid on top of the story to provide flavor and comedic elements. Stories involve characters and a plot. When structured improv performers step on stage, they are given a suggestion and they create characters, or RELATIONSHIPS, that logically fit that suggestion. Now the scene starts with two people have a relationship and know each other. To continue the story, the performers need a story to tell. The easiest thing to do is create a conflict between the two characters.
Conflict is easy because if you’re in any relationship, you have conflict. I have conflicts with my wife, my parents, my siblings, my boss, my girlfriend/boyfriend, my co-worker. The options are endless. Now that you have the beginnings of a story, you overlay the improv game on top. If the story is a an employee trying to get a pay raise from his/her boss, then when you moves from Western genre to Porno and then to Shakespeare, you can take elements of those genres and incorporate it into the scene and tell a cohesive and funny story.
I still remember all of the conversations with my old groups about overthinking. Honestly laying a good foundation to start a scene does not require overthinking. If the unstructured performers can just take two seconds and do this, they will see a growing popularity in their shows.
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
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