the Book of Jason

THE FUTURE OF IMPROV-

There's been a lot discussion on various message boards about the future of improv, particulary in relation to the scene here in Chicago. I will paraphrase a wise person here; "Everyone has two things; an asshole and a website and they all stink." So, here's my .02.

There are two directions that improvisation can will and take in the very near future and those pathways can be clearly seen here right now.

Short-form, as done so expertly by ComedySportz and, not-so-well, by the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway? will continue to grow and thrive. The fun and excitement that both shows bring to improv will cause a host of imitators to spring up. If was an improv group in every college, you can expect there to be two in competition very soon. I wouldn't be surprised if some cities saw their stand-up clubs begin to have their own regular improv nights every week with a regular team of performers. These shows, of course, will probably be awful; populated by wacky comedians with no training or patience whatsoever. ComedySportz will continue to be the live, theater bar that all of these shows aspire to. Admittedly, I have not seen a ComedySportz in another city besides Chicago, but I have to postulate that the Chicago version is the best one in that most of their performers have not only been trained by ComedySportz, but also by teachers/practitioners from Second City, Annoyance, ImprovOlympic and what-have-you.

Long-form, as performed by ImprovOlympic, the Playground and other "team"-based venues will also continue to thrive, though at a slower pace. Generally, an audience hearing the word "improv" will expect short-form. They will accept long-form if done well and entertaining (not necessarily hysterical, but well-thought out and well-played), but if this is not present they will hate long-form. Improv, as a whole, has the fail-safe that "failure" will sometimes be a laugh in and of itself, but during a long-form show that quickly grows tiresome. Will team-based venues begin to pop up across the nation? No, probably not. A city would need to have a support base of educators and talent to continue an entire program of long-form entertainment and it would seem that Chicago is the only major city capable of this right now. Some of the discussion on-line has opined that the current situation of Training Center/Performance Center and the inherent community is strangling itself and to some degree I concur. The improv community is now the largest it has ever been and continues to grow. The performance slots in the currently established long-form theaters can only support so many people. The philosphy of give-every-team-a-shot is all well and good, but does a disservice to people who pay the 5-8-10 dollars to be entertained. Long-form, team-based improvisation will truly begin to grow and thrive when people actually begin to leave Chicago and teach and perform in other cities. It's like the apostles all settled down in Jerusalem and preached to the people there and never wrote anything down... "Yeah, yeah, WE know already! Go find some heathens or something!" Is it better to just one mighty oak, or forests across the land with the possible of several mighty oaks?

There has been some speculation and, well, finger-pointing at the supposed failure of the general improv community to support more theatrically-based improv like the Free Associates and Musical! The Musical. (I use the term "theatrically-based improv" in that these shows were presented in venues that traditionally housed scripted theater and were not known for improvisation.) I don't consider either of these shows "long-form." The Free Associates typically do what I call "Static" or "Linear Form." Their use of suggestions are plug-and-play. The performers know beforehand which one of them will suffer from the suggested ailment/personality disorder, they know which characters will fall in love, etc., it's the dialogue (very well done) that's improvised. The Free Associates attack their subjects (ER,Tennesee Williams, Shakespeare, Dark Shadows) with an incredible amount of research and gusto so that their improvised dialogue is as rich as possible, but their plot lines usually adhere very strictly to their chosen topic. Musical! The Musical takes/took the suggestion of a movie and improvised it into a musical. The three shows I saw were very well done, but, again, they adhered very strictly to their chosen subject. If you had seen the movie suggestion you pretty much knew the plot and the only surprise came from improvisation therein or the (usually excellent) song choices. The comparision to Baby Wants Candy is unfortunate and unavoidable. BWC creates an entirely new musical from scratch with original plots and characters plus the songs and (to paraphrase their intro) what they like to call the "dancing." Is MtM more theatrical because it's longer and is in two acts? Not really and, with the exception of the songs, I know almost exactly what's going to happen in the second act.

I've been bandying the term "theatrical improv" for about a year now. I haven't seen any. Here's my definition: a fully improvised hour and a half show that doesn't depend on either a previously known source material or an audience awareness of improv.

From a producing stand-point, an audience likes to know what they're paying money for; most improv in the city is around 10 dollars. That's pretty cheap. When shows begin to move to larger venues, the price will rise sharply. Twenty dollars for an improvised show in this town is almost an absurdity right now. A theatrical improv show will be worth it. The play "ART" that was popular a few years ago looked to me like an excellent installment of "trio." The fact of the matter is that right now, in 2001, improv needs a hook to get people in the door. It's the so-called democratic appeal of improv that keeps people paying at ImprovOlympic and the Playground to see team-based long-form. Free Associates and Musical! The Musical succeeded because they were/are improvised novelties.

People like money. People especially like their own money. What is a show offering me, as an audience member, that I cannot get anywhere else? That's something I feel every single sketch and/or improv show needs to ask themselves before taking anyone's money. The entertainment choices are endless, as are the sketch/improv choices. What is this show about that cannot be gained from elsewhere?

I long for a theatrical improvisation show. I hope that I'm involved. The benchmark for improvisation was set about a decade ago with Jazz Freddy... what will be the next pivotal show? Jazz Freddy spawned a generation of performers and shows that continues to this day... where is the next show? It won't be another show with a new form. It'll be a new type of production mindset that creates a show that relies on strong performances and a creative risk. It would have to be broad enough to appeal to a mainstream audience, but without a pop culture hook.

Well, those are my thoughts. Please visit the Argos Agency Message Board to discuss this thread. The first one is a post from me titled: "The Future" or just e-mail me.