An Educated Audience Is Our Best Customer

Christopher Vose's Guide to Improv for the New Fan

by Christopher Vose

So many improv shows to choose from. So many formats: short-form, long-form, The Harold... How can a potential improv audience member choose what show to go see? 

There are a number of things that you can know that will help you make the best decision about how to get the most for your improv-viewing dollar. You want to see the best show you can, right? How do you do that? What group should you go see in your city? What format or show is best for you?

First of all, in improv groups (as in a lot of things), experience counts.  A lot. If you can find a group that has been in existence for a long time, or has cast members with a lot of improv experience, as a rule of thumb they will probably be a pretty good group. Give a group you want to see a call.  Ask them how long they've been around. Ask if the improvisors are experienced. This is important because there are a lot of groups of
inexperienced improvisors who are doing shows to gain experience. I know this because I was in one. When I "graduated" from the Groundlings' training program back in the mid 1980s, I joined up with a group of other relatively new improvisors and we did "gonzo" gigs wherever we could. And we stunk. We learned a lot, but we made some audiences squirm. So if your friend comes up to you and says, "Hey, my improv class is putting on a show and I want you to come!" by all means, go! It's your friend! You have to support your friends. But it won't be a good show. It might be fun, you know, a bunch of people in the audience, all of whom have friends on stage, all being supportive. That type of show generates a lot of good will, and can make you feel good and have fun. But it won't be a good show, just a good time. But improv is a skill, and it takes many bad shows before any group can consistently put on good shows.

Secondly, you want a group that tries lots of different formats. As an improviser who's been schlepping the boards for almost twenty years, I can tell you that improv is an art form that always has something new to teach you. I've done all sorts of short and long-form formats, and I learned something from every show I've ever been in, and I continue to learn. My experience has taught me that groups that only do one format have stopped learning and exploring. This makes them, and their shows, stagnate. Improvisors, especially experienced ones, need to be constantly challenged, working outside the envelope. There's nothing more exciting than to see an experienced improviser pushing their limits, even if they fail.

Formats, Formats, Formats

Short-form, also called "spot" improv or "cabaret" improv, is probably the format most of us are familiar with. It's the type of improv you see played on ABC's "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" It's a show comprised of a bunch of short improvised scenes or games. Most beginning improvisors learn short form as it's an excellent teaching format because the scenes are short and easy to understand and critique. It's also fun.

Most improv groups perform a short-form format. Some of the more prolific groups do many types of formats, but there's usually a short-form show in there somewhere. Short-form to improvisors is like playing catch to baseball players, it's the basics. Even professional baseball players benefit from playing catch. Improv is like any other skill and you need to always reinforce the basics. But remember, since short-form is the basics, it's also where beginning groups spawn. If you want to go see a local group and all they do is short-form, it should be a caution flag that they may be new and inexperienced. It could also mean that they're an experienced group brushing up on their skills or cashing in on the popularity of short form,
so maybe a call to the group and a few questions about their experience level would be in order.

Generally, a long-form show is a show made up of one improvised story, like a play, and there can be many ways to present a show like that. For example, LA Theatresports performed a show a couple of summers ago called "Shakespeare Unscripted" in which they improvised a Shakespeare play. They took just a few suggestions from the audience at the beginning, and then improvised from there. For example, they would ask the audience for the title of a play that Shakespeare "should have written," Invariably they'd suggest a parody of a play already written, like "A Midsummer Night's Sandwich", or something jokey like that. So the group would try to steer away from that so they were not doing a parody, but actually improvising their own story, but in the style of Shakespeare. So they'd get a title ("The Grassy Hill", for example) then ask for a character flaw (like "greed") just to give the piece a theme. Then they would perform the show, and try to make it look as much like a real Shakespeare play as they could, endowing the show with rich characters and a compelling story. They studied the format, workshopped it, and took it very seriously. The show was a hit,
by the way. It's coming back this summer.

But long-form can be presented in any genre: a musical, a detective story, a soap opera, anything. It can also be present without an established genre.  Just a play, waiting to be seen.

Clearly long-form is a more difficult format than short-form, requiring additional skills and more experience. For the potential audience member, a group that does long-form only, or in addition to short-form, is more likely to be an experienced group capable of consistently putting on good shows.  That's certainly a generalization, but there are not too many beginning groups willing to tackle long-form. In the evolution of an improv group, long-form is usually something that happens after a group has been doing short-form long enough to actually look for new formats. It doesn't mean they're going to be good at it, but it means that they've been around long enough to give it a good, educated try. Generally.

Who Is This Guy Harold?

The Harold.  This format lies somewhere between long-form and short-form.  It's a show that contains a series of short scenes that are thematically connected. The Harold usually starts with the host asking the audience for a theme. Then the improvisors pace the stage, periodically one of them will step forward and deliver a three or four line scenette connected to the theme, then he/she fades back into the crowd of pacing improvisors. Some Harolds incorporate monologues, short-form games or other elements at this point. These things happen a few more times until a scene starts and plays out for a while. That scene is interrupted by another scene starting, and then another, then maybe part II of the first scene you saw, and so on,
until all the scenes are resolved, and that's the show. There are many variations on The Harold, but that's basically it. Several thematically-connected scenes that interrupt each other, but they all resolve, hopefully.

I think Harold is a flawed format and is not a good show format. In all my years as an improviser I've seen many a Harold, but I've never seen one work. I think it's a good format to play around with in workshops or
rehearsals, but it's not for shows. Many improvisors will disagree with me on this one, but many others will agree. It's a big debate in our little subculture, but I'm hoping that by dissecting the Harold I can increase our
audience's understanding, and thus appreciation, of improv.

Be sure to check out Part 2, as Chris builds his case against the Harold.