15th
Useful Lie: “Don’t Ask Questions”
“Don’t ask questions” is one of those supposed improv rules that has a good reason behind it but I would never just say that in a class I’m teaching and leave it as is. If improv is to reflect our reality in any way, questions must exist. We all ask questions in day to day life and so onstage, we must be able to ask questions. But there’s a kind of question that should be avoided.
As Marc noted in the comments to Jill’s post on Monday, questions like “How are you doing?” and “What’s that?” are boring. But as improv teachers we always hear these questions and its ilk. “What are we doing today?” “What’s happening?” These are the questions we must avoid. Don’t ask these questions. Let’s take a look at why they get asked and why they should be avoided.
When I ask a question in a scene like, “What’s that?” I am stalling. I’m scared of making a bad choice so I offload that responsibility to my scene partner. Essentially, I’m saying, “I don’t have an idea right now and I don’t have the time or calmness to make a perfect/funny/interesting choice. So can you take charge of this? Thanks.” As an improviser my whole job is to make things up. But if we’re nervous, forget it. I don’t want to make a mistake. I don’t want to say something and have no one laugh.
Nuts to that. Don’t worry about being funny with every single line. Just build a scene. My advice to beat this habit is always to answer the question you’re about to ask.
- Don’t say, “What’s that?” Instead say, “That’s a cool model ship!”
- Don’t say, “What are we doing today?” Say, “Let’s go to the movies today.”
- Lazy improviser: “How are you doing?” Amazing improviser: “You look sad.”
Don’t make your scene partner do your work for you. You have to be responsible and do half of the work. It’s scary making choices. We risk getting judged and people will hide in a cave for years before putting themselves in that position. Improv requires bold moves and bold choices. Even a simple endowment of, “You look sad,” can be a bold choice in an improv scene depending on how nervous you are.
And there are questions that add huge details or are great offers in and of themselves:
- So, did you finally break up with Patty?
- Who put this Lego piece in my time-reversalator?
- What do you think you’re doing with that gun, Jameson?
So, it’s true: “Don’t ask questions.” But the full version is “Don’t ask questions that add nothing or make your partner do the work.”
The title of this post, however, contains “Useful Lie.” Because even though it can be useful to people who are learning improv (and I avoid the word “rule” assiduously when I teach), this “rule” is a lie. Ask any question you like, even the ones I tell you not to say a few paragraphs above. Because those are real things real people say. “What’s that?” is a perfectly valid statement and you could probably have a really fun scene with just two people saying that back and forth in different ways. The key is to ask questions from a place of control and not a place of nervousness. Once you do improv long enough (and even more so if you teach it), you can tell the difference between someone asking “What’s that?” because they don’t want to make a choice and someone asking the very same question because it adds to the scene.
In conclusion: Don’t ask questions. Unless you want to ask questions.
- vinny
