I’m trying to slit my wrists…what are you doing?

Earlier today (if you can call 8pm early) I had an improv show down at a local comedy club with my long form troupe (the second to last show I will have with the group before my big move to Chicago). However, we were not performing long form improv. No, instead we were involved in a comedy battle of sorts (two teams enter, one team leaves…victorious – the other leaves a loser) where we did short form games.

Now contrary to a large portion of the long form improv community I do not despise short form – I feel it has its place and can be entertaining (both performing and watching) if done correctly. Tonight though really reminded me of what I don’t like about the genre. Now both groups were very entertaining and the audience definitely enjoyed itself, but I left the venue not being as pleased as I should've been.

Tonight the exploitive nature of short form was expressed to its fullest. Now as I said before, I enjoy good short form (either performing or watching), but the problem is that it often turns shitty because the players are focused too heavily on getting a laugh from the audience (sometimes at the expense of the scene or their scene partner). This typically happens when people get too focused on the rules of the game being played, or the gimmick of the scene.

And that’s just what happened tonight: some of the players seemed a little more focused on playing the gimmick (and getting that all powerful laugh) rather than creating a scene.
The first game, a short form classic, was Party Quirks – a guessing game where one member has to guess the characters being played by the others. It started out well but became all about the gimmick – there wasn’t really a scene going on by the end, it was just the performers dropping witty (and some not so witty) hints as one player guessed. The next game they played got the largest response from the audience of the night (which is sad for so many reasons): it was helping hands (three players put their hands in their pockets and three people stood behind them reaching around their bodies & replacing their hands/arms with their own). The whole scene (I can't even call it that really) was about the arms getting the other players in trouble (making messes, forcing disgusting things in the players mouths, and inappropriate gestures). The audience loved it – biggest response of the night as I said, but nothing really happened in the course of the game. There was no scene – just people making a fool of themselves for the audience while milking the gimmick.

This is the kind of thing I can’t stand about short form (or shitty long form for that matter) when it becomes all about the gimmick and the laugh. All of these games are just gimmicks – and they are supposed to be superimposed upon an improvised scene. If you’re not creating a scene, working with the other players on stage to create something – then you're just up there masturbating for the pleasure of the crowd. Now there are some games where that is the whole point (a masturbatory experience for both the performer & audience with the laugh as the orgasm if you will): joke rounds (like the tie breaker Bar Talk: you get a suggestion then must come up with a one line joke using the suggestion & starting with: I like my women/men like I like my_____), but outside of those rare games you should always be striving to create a scene.

Ok, that’s enough of a rant for now – I have to pack for my trip to New York this weekend (I'm leaving in less than 12 hours). I’ll be performing in the 9th annual Del Close Improv Marathon. I’m sure I’ll return with a lot of very interesting experiences. Sorry for the length of this one, but I had a lot to get off my chest.