the Montreal Improv blog

TMZ

I just realized that TMZ, the abrasive entertainment news show on TV, is a group game.

-bj

The Ask-For Spectrum

Where do you fall along the ask-for spectrum?

Take the first suggestion you hear

• Avoids self-censoring; after all, who is to say that waiting for an “inspiring” choice is anything but waiting for a safe choice.  Improvise!
• Speeds up the show; keeps energy from dropping.
• All suggestions can lead to magic.  We are free to interpret a suggestion in any way we choose, thus no suggestion can lock us into a boring, dirty or jokey scene.
• Shows the audience that all suggestions are equally good; encourages them to be quick with their answers.

Choose the suggestion you like most among the first flurry from the audience

• Usually as fast as taking the first suggestion since several audience members often answer simultaneously.
• Lets us avoid boring, dirty or jokey suggestions

Be picky; choose the first suggestion that inspires you

• Not only allows us to avoid boring, dirty or jokey suggestions, but gets a suggestion that inspires us.  Choosing a topic that we feel personally connected to leads to a more honest, engaging scene.

Evaluate all suggestions and choose the one that inspires you most

• Rather than take the first inspiring choice, wait until the audience has had a chance to toss up a bunch of suggestions.  The last one might be the most inspiring of all.
• Gives more members of the audience the opportunity to provide input into the show.
• What inspires you may not inspire your team.  Check in with your fellow players before taking a suggestion.
• The time lost to getting a suggestion is gained in the scene by all players being on the same page, and by the suggestion triggering that first “Yes, And!” in our minds.

Suggestions on suggestions

• Pretend you love every suggestion, even the ones that you hate.  This will encourage the audience to give you more.
• The suggestions you accept trains the audience in the kinds of suggestions they will give you in the future.
• More thoughtful questions = more thoughtful answer

—bj

Teaching Scenes

UCB tells its students to avoid teaching scenes.

I’d rather just figure out why they feel harder than other scenes.  Then, we’ll know how to approach them and avoid common pitfalls.

Teaching scenes usually involve a teacher and some students.  The main difficulties are:

• Hard to keep order if many people are on stage
• Focus is often on a school subject, instead of teacher-student relationship
• Teacher and student get stuck in a loop of repeating each other

Group Game

Try thinking of a teaching scene as a group game with this pattern: Teacher talks, a student talks, teacher talks, another student talks.  This way, you avoid people talking over each other and you get into a natural rhythm.  When a student finishes speaking, the other students look to the teacher for the response.  The game ‘leader’ directs the flow.  Naturally, you don’t have to observe this pattern in an absolute strict manner, but it will help.

Relationships

Remember that the topic of the class is less important than the student-teacher relationship.  The scene will begin with a school topic, sure, but it’s only a vehicle for fun relationship stuff.  Here are some examples of relationships you can play out:

• Teacher is scaring the hell out of the students.
• Teacher is terrified of the students
• Teacher is being blackmailed by the students
• Teacher is earnest and right out of college; students are crushing her idealism.
• Teacher gets the students to grow up faster than they should.

An example of something that will feel bland?

• Student is having difficulty in Math.  Teacher tries to help them by working on word problems.

React

When improvising dance, modeling or art classes, players will often fall into a pattern where the teacher does something physical and then asks the student to repeat it.  They are banking on outlandish physicality to replace story.  Usually this ends up being silly, rather than funny, and every time the loop is completed, it feels like we’re back at the beginning of the scene without any traction. 

What a shame to let good physicality go to waste. If the student and teacher are in close quarters, how does that make them feel?  Love?  Revulsion?  It’s not what you do, but how you do it.

Remember: relationships!  What do the student and teacher want from each other, besides the obvious.  How can one of them get themselves into some trouble?  How do the relative statuses of the teacher and his pupil affect their relationship? 

Conclusion

Teaching scenes are no different from other scenes.  Go out and have fun!

-bj

Problematic scenes

What do you do when a scene is not working?
 
The way I see it, problematic scenes fall mainly under the following two categories:

1. The scene is confused

If you find yourself in a confused scene where various details conflict and/or other details are unexplained, the only way forward is to define and justify everything, starting now.  Confusion is a disease that spreads. 

Read More

Play at the edge of the scene

Indulge me while I attempt to coin a new improv phrase: “Play at the edge of the scene.“  This incorporates other notions you may be familiar with, such as “Show, don’t tell.” and “Don’t script”, but is, I hope, a more positive and evocative reformulation. 

The edge of the scene is the point in time beyond which the players haven’t planned.  At the edge of the scene, you’re looking out into the void where your universe has yet to expand.  This is where you have no choice but to improvise!  Play here!

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Now Even More Awesome

I am thrilled and jazzed and even chuffed to announce the two newest members of the Montreal Improv family, BJ Walsh and Kirsten Rasmussen.

Marc and I started this endeavour with the intent of teaching improv classes and growing Montreal’s undersized improv community. You guys have all responded with great enthusiasm and as a result, Marc and I just don’t have the time to start new projects and keep building our momentum. So with the addition of these two super-talented and, more importantly, lovely people to our board of directors, we’re ready to make bigger and better things.

This blog is the first beneficiary of our augmented powers. Marc and I have been alternating Mondays with improv articles. Starting this Thursday, BJ and Kirsten will be alternating Thursdays. So now you’ll be getting double the improv wisdom during the week.

-fv