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

Get In There!

Everyone who performs at FNI starts out as an audience member. The transition from seats to stage is easier for some than others; many of the best and most prolific performers I've seen had trouble getting started.

Ultimately, it comes down to taking a deep breath and raising your hand, week after week, but there are steps you can take to push forward.

Be accountable to someone.

In chatting with John Feightner about this topic, we both agreed that what helped us get onstage was knowing that there was someone in the audience judging us if we didn't. At the time, I was taking a workshop taught by Chris Griswold, another FNI alum, along with John and a number of the other people you see consistently on stage. He was an excellent teacher, but while I found myself making progress every class, I still sat in the audience for most shows without volunteering. After a while, Chris gave me a hard time about it, and every week I knew that if I didn't do something onstage, I was going to hear about it. Every game that went by without my hand in the air, I could feel Chris arching his eyebrow higher and higher in my direction. (Real or imagined? I don't know. [Yes I do. It was real.]) It's pretty basic developmental psychology that we crave the approval of the people whose opinions we value and we'll jump through hoops to get it. Pick someone. It can be anyone, but ideally this person is a) comfortable being judgmental and b) someone you want to impress. Promise to get onstage once a week, and be accountable. If none of your friends are judgy enough, come see me, John, or Abby and we'll be your surrogate judger.


Let the Game Do the Heavy Lifting

Games at FNI range widely in the amount of input they require from the players. If you've seen Tag-A-Line, you know it's a game that has two players who only have to day one word at a time when tagged by the other players. That game is a great way to dip your toe in. A game like Minute Fairy Tale is highly structured. You have the skeleton of a plot already and a time limit, so you can feel comfortable not embellishing the story much. The humor is inherent to the time constraint, your job is to play that up and enhance it. Someday you'll be totally comfortable building a scene from the ground up with nothing more than a one-word suggestion, but until then, use the framework of more structured games as a support.

You Already Have Mad Skillz - Highlight Them

As time goes on and you find yourself getting comfortable onstage, you may want to find new challenges by volunteering for games that scare you. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let's get you onstage in the first place. Different games utilize different amounts of work and skill sets. Try to identify your comfort zones. What do you do in normal life that makes your friends laugh? Are you very physical? Good at charades? Try miming games like Murder Chain and Pledge Break. Do you like word play? Give Jeopardy a shot. Can you write a completely bullshitted research paper for a class you barely attended and pass? Kick ass at the game Balderdash? Challenge might be your game. Starting with games that play to your strengths will make the stage less intimidating.


And what is the everlasting refrain of FNI? Let's say it together, "Failure is Ok!"

Anyone with a story of how you got onstage for the first time - Questions about which game is right for you - Other suggestion? Leave a comment. Let's discuss.

BOOK REVIEW: The Ultimate Improv Book

The Ultimate Improv Book is terrible. It reads like a bad training video, one made by an alien culture that’s attempting to wrap its mind around this thing humans call “improv comedy.” I would love to excuse this book for attempting simplicity, but even high school students don’t deserve such childishness. There is no intelligent conversation to be had here and more than a few bizarre concepts that I find to be destructive.

Take for example the author’s insistence that “adding complications to an already problematic dilemma is a wonderful source of entertainment.” While any good improvisor should know to “up the stakes,” The Ultimate Improv Book thinks all scenes should be a derivative of a waiter stacking too much food on a tray. Keep adding problems, they insist! Keep adding characters! The book also flies in the face of almost everything I’ve ever read on literature, screenwriting, and improv scenework by telling us to never start in the middle. The chapter on Characterization takes only three pages and breathlessly simplifies important concepts to Walk Different, Talk Different, Be Extreme. No time for forming emotions, motivations, relationships. The authors also take a moment to say, “It is up to the player to lie to his audience. If he pretends to be happy and cheerful and smiles and looks like he is enjoying himself, then the audience will like him better.” Are we to assume all improvisors hate their work? There is something to be said about stage presence. This isn’t it.

But here’s the truly awful part of this book. The Ultimate Improv Book tells you to PLAN IMPROV SCENES! They actually suggest improv teams use a “huddle” to discuss scenes before they are performed and that its OK to agree upon the ending beforehand (though they casually say its OK to just plan the beginning too!). When not using the “huddle,” our teachers also suggest creating pre-planned scenes, or “Flag Scenes,” where audience suggestions are inserted like mad-libs into highly scripted plot lines. This is trash. This is not improv.

The only thing I can recommend about The Ultimate Improv Book is it's Appendix Six. It's a list of other improv books. Good improv books.

BOOK REVIEW: Improv-ise

Mick Napier's Improv-ise is for the improvisor who's heard the rules, tried all the games, and still feels like they need more. They've hit a rut and need new eyes to see with. It's an improv book packed with a lot of good notions about how to handle one's self in an improv scene, although, to really get into Improv-ise, you should have some knowledge of improv already.

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Why? Because Mick Napier's book is steeped in bitterness toward the way improv is currently being taught (ie: Truth in Comedy). He begins by listing all the familiar improv "rules" and immediately tells you to throw them out. The "rules," he says, are merely the left-brain trying to overanalyze the contents of a good scene. Thinking about all the do's and dont's will murder you in a scene, and there are easier ideas which will result in better scenework.

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Now, as you may have noticed, I only ever type "rules" in quotations. I agree with Napier a lot on this point, but I see the potential in new improvisors grasping the "rules" before moving on to deeper thinking. It's why I like Improv-ise as a supplementary book.

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If it's your first, second, third book, whatever, Improv-ise still contains some wonderful approaches to dealing with the actual mechanics of a scene. Napier teaches you how to take care of yourself at the top of a scene (a crucial moment), choose emotional states for your character, support your partner (...by supporting yourself), and how focusing on the how's of your choices instead of the why's can create a roadmap for your entire story. It's great stuff for anyone who's thinking, "I know I should say 'yes,' ...but what do I actually do?"

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The final chapters also discuss many advanced techniques (how to handle three person scenes, how to vary choices) and a lot of good tips for people seeking a future in improvisation (God help you, you wonderful fools!). If that's not enough, Napier also takes a moment to explain the Laws of Thermodynamics and how they pertain to an improv scene. It's fun stuff and a highly recommended read.

Saying No: or Doesn't Every Good Hero Need a Villain?

Being contrary comes natural to all improvisors when they first start out. We can make a lot of rules about "Saying Yes!" but that still doesn't stop people from saying "No, no, no!" and ruining the potential of perfectly good scenes. Let's talk a bit about why. Here's a typical case:

A: Honey, let's go to the park. It's such a lovely day!

B: I don't feel like it.

A: Oh, but it's so wonderful out!

B: It's raining.

A: Oh, er, yes! I just love the rain. Let's dance in the puddles.

B: I don't even know you.

Player A is doing their damndest to do something in this scene. They attempt to tapdance around Player B's denial but the scene is eventually derailed. To the audience it looks like a weird mess. Player B, however, thinks "I'm doing rather well!"

Getting thrown into an improv scene doesn't give us a lot of time to think. Once that first line of dialogue is delivered, there's really no time to dawdle. We have to start making decisions quickly. Most people starting out want the easiest decision. In a split second they have to think about how this story is going to work and what's their role in it. A spilt second isn't really that long, so they start to condense all storytelling into something simple. An easy to remember, and monumentally flawed formula:

"Story = Someone wants something, Others try to thwart them."

Now, we can look at a lot of stories and this seems to fit. Would Romeo and Juliet be interesting if there wasn't something keeping the lovers apart? Would a superhero story be interesting if the bad guy didn't fight back? Would a highschool story work if the new kid was easily accepted into the social circle? Drama isn't life made easy, so obstacles do seem like the logical choice for storytelling.

People say "No" in various ways performing improv because they think they've figured out their purpose in the scene. "I create conflict. I create the obstacles. Player A seems to want something, so my only choice can be to not give it to them." They lock themselves into this mode so thoroughly, that improvisors begin denying even the most basic facts of a scene in order to keep the obstacles coming. They'll deny relationships, objects, their very surroundings, anything the other player brings up. I've seen an improvisor deny his own character's existence! All these No's do nothing to reinforce the scene or the story. They just confuse and frustrate the audience (not to mention the other player).

If you want to make better improv scenes, you need to remember that story is not characters being stopped by obstacles. Story is what characters do to overcome those obstacles. There's always a way over, under, around, or through a wall. You just need to find it.

In the example above, having a simple, uneventful walk in the park does sound incredibly boring. Obstacles can be created, however, without resorting to the No's. Here are some examples I can think of.

1) Player B could be sick/fighting allergies. They force themselves outside and are tortured by pollen and pet dander. They could overstuff themselves with medication or be such a hypochondriac that they smother themselves in sunscreen and wear a medical mask. Perhaps they can only go outside wearing a giant balloon, which tears on a branch and nearly get them killed.

2) Player B could be busy or have plans that will be interfered with. They could force themselves outside anyway and attempt to speed up every park activity to finish early. They could take their work with them and either have their papers blown away by the wind or have such a good time that they throw their work away (only realizing, too late, the consequences of not finishing). Player A could even opt to stay indoors and help Player B finish their work, eventually turning a humdrum activity into something oddly romantic.

3) Player B could sarcastically comment on every thing in the park, trying to give Player A the hint that they hate it. Player A could become upset and Player B has to come around or risk angering them completely. Or Player A could giggle and ignore Player B's negative disposition. Player B makes bigger and bigger grumbles which just make Player A laugh harder and harder. We now get the glimpse into a very bizarre relationship.

Use your imagination and you can come up with dozens of ideas that keep the action moving forward without denying Player A's offer of "going to the park." This isn't even to mention the infinite number of ideas/problems that could be created if you just plain go to the park! Say "Yes" and indulge in any number of park activities. If needed, trouble can brew after the event's begun. You can even make the activity odd and exciting enough on it's own.

A: Honey, let's go to the park. It's such a lovely day!

B: You're right, dear. There's bound to be numerous joggers we can kidnap!

A: Better clean out the trunk before we leave!

See, saying "Yes" can be just as fun.

BOOK REVIEW: Impro for Storytellers

Impro for Storytellers is the somewhat less philosophical, more exercise oriented version of the first Impro. Many people prefer Storytellers, though I personally enjoy the theorizing of Impro better. Still, as it is a sprawling improv book (nearly 400 pages, ye gods!), there is a lot to benefit from this volume as well.

Reading Impro for Stortellers is a bit like being a fly on the wall of an improv workshop, but the teacher is secretly informing the fly of all his reasonings. This can be a great benfit to new improvisors hungry for lessons but nowhere to learn. Johnstone describes his students' pitfalls (pitfalls a newbie will certainly recognize in himself/herself) and gives straightforward lessons on how to break them free from their constraints. There are copious amounts of exercises described in this book, many familiar to all improvisors and several you may recognize as actual FNI games. Besides some extraneous information on how to handle Theatresports and run your own show, it's all useful information to new performers.

Chapters on "Storytelling" and "Making Things Happen" will be a great boon to those who can't wrap their minds around the ideas in Impro. There are many great lessons on opening up your mind and spicing up your stories. The chapter on "Character" is also very useful. Most improv books have tons to say about scenework but little on character, so Johnstone's discussions here will be great for anyone who wants to break free from themselves on stage. Some people may find these ideas a bit too "theater-y," which is silly considering improv is nothing but theater, but you should take a gander anyway.

Storytellers may be a better start and more digestible than Impro, but I highly recommend both if you wish to pursue improv further.

BOOK REVIEW: Impro

Keith Johnstone's two improv books (Impro and Impro for Storytellers) are a bit headier than the straight-forward Truth in Comedy. It's what you might expect from a man who wrote a play called Moby Dick, in which a sperm cell grows millions of times its size and escapes a fish bowl to wreck havoc on the highs seas. In Impro, Johnstone is chiefly concerned with bringing imagination back to the adult actor's mind.

He does this focusing on only four main points: 1) Status 2) Spontaneity 3) Narrative Skills 4) Masks. While a long book for only four chapters, Johnstone's copious examples and exercises create a rich understanding of each topic and can really go a long way to opening up your mind onstage. Here's the rough break down of each:

1. Status - Johnstone explains how knowing your character's place on the "pecking order" can generate ideas. Whether you are Master, Servant, or seesawing up and down the status ladder, being aware of how others affect you (and allowing yourself to be affected) can make creating characters and stories much easier.
2. Spontaneity - Knowing that there are no correct choices in improv. We spend way too much time in real life struggling against our imaginations, so when it comes to the stage, break free. Be obscene, be psychotic, and strangely enough...be obvious!
3. Narrative Skills - How a story isn't just a random collection of events, but a collection of ideas that reincorporate what has already been created. Johnstone also illustrates the principle that most stories are merely routines broken.
4. Masks - Usually the most derided chapter, Johnstone gives examples of how he uses masks to open up actors and make them make larger choices.

Impro is a philosophical book, but there are plenty of handy exercises within and copious food for thought. The chapter on Masks will seem irrelevant and 99% of you will never really get a chance to explore the ideas within, but I can tell you it's all true. While not as direct as Johnstone's examples, playing the puppeteer in "Bored Morticians" is pretty darn close to mask work. Having even that slight barrier between the character and myself has caused some insane ideas, so don't assume this chapter is completely worthless. Impro is a good next step book after you think you've gotten the "rules" down.

BOOK REVIEW: Truth in Comedy

(every week I'll be posting improv book reviews. as FNI is usually a starting out place for many performers, we want to showcase some helpful guides for those who want to learn how improvising really works)

Truth in Comedy is THE improv starter book, my young Padawan. If you have even an inkling for knowing more about improvisation, all the basic information you need is found in this slim, handy volume. As stated in the introduction:

"The simple, basic rules laid down in this book will result in much funnier, intelligent, and more interesting scenes. Deliberately trying to be funny or witty is a considerable drawback, and often leads to disaster. Honest responses are simpler and more effective. By the same token, making patterns and connections is much more important than making jokes."

In twelve simple chapters, Truth in Comedy lays the foundation of honesty, trust, agreement, staying in the moment, scene building, and pattern recognition that is the key to all improv comedy. Comedy in improv doesn't come from jokes (one-liners and word play) but from staying true to human relationships and the humor that comes from personal interactions. While Truth in Comedy teaches you to fly unfettered toward the unexpected, it shows that even the most bizarre scenes possible must be anchored in real emotions, wants, and needs.

Each chapter is highly organized with clear examples given to illustrate each point. Using actual improv scenes from workshops and shows, Charna Halpern fully describes the do's and don'ts allowing you to see how following the "rules" make a scene grow and how the pitfalls truly short-circuit creativity. Comedians like Mike Myers, Bill Murray, and Chris Farley are named dropped throughout, but it is the teachings and philosophy of Del Close that truly paint this book. He is man, the myth, the legend of improvisation and you will know by the end why he was dubbed co-author of this book.

You will also be introduced to the long-form improv game, "The Harold," in this volume. While you won't find the particulars of this game too useful at FNI, the lessons of support and team building used to create the Harold can certainly be transcribed to the simpler scenework seen on our stage. You might not need those last two chapters now, but don't avoid them either.

Let me put it this way: if you've bothered to take time out of your day to read an improv comedy blog, you need Truth in Comedy. Here's the Amazon link. Scared of internet demons? Just go to the college bookstore and ask them to order it. This is the first book I ever read about improv and rereading it for this review still gave me a powerful charge. Do it!

Basic Rules of Improv

Below you'll find a quick and dirty list of some of the "rules" of improv. We'll address each one individually later, but consider this your improv cheat sheet.

All of the "rules" boil down to one basic concept: Make your partner(s) look good.

If you're more concerned about making your scene partner look good than you are about making yourself look good, you'll both look better in the end. Improv is a team sport. Respect the give and take of the scene. You are creating something out of nothing, so give your partner something to work with. Take what your partner gives you and build on it. Make your partner look good (and you'll look better in the process).

Here are a few tips to help you do that:

Do:

1. Do make choices.
You've got a one word suggestion, or maybe a location and a task. After that, it's all you and your partner. You both need to be making choices, and every choice you make is a gift to your partner that they can work with. Every small choice you make (a strong character, a hidden conflict, an interesting action) adds up to make a great scene.

2. Do accept your partner's choices.
When your partner makes a choice, it is a gift. Accept it and build on it. You'll hear this referred to as "Yes, and"-ing. Yes, I accept your choice, and I'm building on it.

3. Do have an open mind.
So much of improv is free association. When an improv scene stalls, it's often because of internal second guessing on the part of one or both partners. Trust your gut instinct (as long as your gut instinct isn't to be a jerk to your partner.)

Don't:

1. Don't deny.
Person A: "Welcome to the shoe factory, Mr. Smith, I think you'll like working here! I'll be your supervisor."
Person B: "You're crazy! This isn't a shoe factory, this is the Moon! And I'm YOUR supervisor!"

Congratulations, Person B, you've just derailed the scene. We've all seen denial. We've all done it, too. Let's hang our heads for a second and then move on. It might feel like a cheap laugh, or the way to get to do the scene that you really wanted to do. Well, cut it out. If your partner gives you a premise, you accept it, shape it, and build on it. (See: Yes, and)

2. Don't ask open questions.
"Where are we?"
"Who are you?"
"What's the plan?"
"Why are you doing that?"

In an improv scene, open questions are a way to speak without saying anything at all. By asking questions like those, you are essentially handing responsibility for the scene over to your partner, while still maintaining the appearance of participating in the scene.
"You choose where we are."
"You choose who you are."
"You come up with an idea for a plan."
"You explain what you are doing and why, thus creating the entire basis for a scene singlehandedly."

3. Don't pimp your partner.
"Hey, read this hilarious joke in this book."
"Sing that really high and fast song your were singing earlier."
"Show me that breakdance move you're always talking about."

Pimping is asking your partner to do something ridiculous onstage that you have good reason to believe he or she cannot or will not do. This is another one of those things that feels like an easy laugh. You get to say something funny, and if your partner can't do it, they look like a fool, and you assume you look like less of a fool in comparison (you are wrong). If they can do it, you've just caused something ridiculous to happen on stage. It seems like a win/win for you. It's not. First, you look like an asshole, and not in a hilarious way. Second, it's just not as funny as you think it is. Ridiculous things happening onstage is a good thing. But if you want a joke told, or a dance done, do it yourself.

These tips will help you on stage, but ultimately, what makes a great improviser is getting onstage and taking risks. Failure really is ok, especially when you learn from it!