RETRO BLOG: Pain Hole Essay from 1998

Ben's Painhole for the week of March 8,1998

Making FNI Yours:



There seems to be an alarming trend among Friday Nite Improvs audience members and regulars to think of Improvs as a "show". This is completely wrong. As the producer of Friday Nite Improvs, this buggs the living Abe Vagota out of me. You see, my friends, Improvs has never been and indeed cannot be a show. A show is when you go to something and some performers entertain you and you go home. Improvs cannot survive in show format. Improvs is audience participation but it shouldn't even be called that because even calling the crowd an audience implies that there is a show. The "audience" at improvs is the show. There is no one person at improvs more important than the collective whole that assembles there. The regulars may be a little more experienced, but this in no way makes them better. In fact, most of the time a regular-dominated show is just plain boring. So here I sit begging you that if you must refer to Improvs as a show at least make it your show in some way. Don't be intimidated by regulars. Put them in their places. This includes me and Louis. If you don't have the guts to get up on stage, make a suggestion, heckle someone, express yourself from your seat in some way! But please, don't let the so-called regulars control Improvs. It is your place to be a star just as much as it is theirs and really improvs is for you, not for them.

Hoping that I have sparked just one
timid person to get up for World's Worst,

Ben