Improvisation Meets Stand-Up Vol. 1

by: Mike Blejer and Jason Saenz
First up: The Stand-Up Comic, Mike Blejer

Full Disclosure:
I’ve done some improv over the course of my life since I’ve been involved in acting from about the time I was 8 or so, but in the context of comedy I did mostly sketch in college and then writing a satirical blog for a magazine after school before I started doing stand up. My point is, I’m going to be making a lot of assertions about improv and stand up and I’ll own up to my lack of in-depth experience with improv now. Feel free to use that to discredit me without really considering the strength or validity of my argument.

The Gripe:
A lot of comedians I’ve seen perform bits that could just as easily be done in improv. For instance they take a two things that are wildly different and juxtapose them in an obvious way and then act out “what it would be like.” (e.g., What if, Captain America went to the Laundromat!?! ‘What is this, steel mesh?! I ain’t steam-cleaning no shield!!’). This isn’t inherently a bad thing, but I just think that stand up comedians should aspire to do things which people can’t do in improv, to play to the strengths of their chosen medium.

So because stand up material is practiced beforehand1 you should be able to do things with it which you just can’t do with improv. This could mean going into a subject matter in greater depth (what is typically thought of when depth is discussed), but it could also mean exploring a concept with more subtlety than would easily be attained in improv. For that matter, it could be structuring a bit with more depth, the most conspicuous example is probably a call back (which also occurs in improv, but again the subtlety factor can be a big differentiator here), but in addition to call backs, there are more interesting structural benefits that can come from prepared material.

[For the rest of Mike's take on Improv and Jason's counterpoint hit the JUMP!]

Comedy Autopsy:
Bryson Turner has a bit he’s doing right now which provides a really good example of this. I will try to paraphrase the joke as best I can2:

Premise/Observation: They sell regular and large sized condoms in stores, but not small condoms. “They have every other type of condom except small condoms. They even have mint-flavored condoms, and I highly doubt there are women out there saying, (Act out) ‘man...i wish there was something that made my mouth feel really clean and really dirty at the same time.’”
Normal explanation/set-up: No one wants to have to publicly admit they have a small penis by buying one. (Act out: “Hey can I get price check on a 12 pack of mini-P’s? Yeah, the ones for people with small penises. Over in Isle twelve. For this guy.”)
Alternate explanation/Twist 1: A man with a small penis doesn’t really need a condom anyway, because if he’s gotten a woman to agree to sleep with him despite his ‘shortcoming,’ he’s obviously cunning and resourceful enough to get out of using a condom anyway. (Act out?)
2nd premise/Twist 2: This is why I think MacGyver had a small dick.
Development/set-up 2: (act out) Girl to Macguyver says “what should we do, all I have is this saran-wrap, a rubber ring and some twist ties” (This isn’t quite right, but the supplies will lead the audience to believe Macguyver will turn it into a condom).
Twist 3: (also act out) Maguyver says “It’s ok, I’ll take the twist ties and wrap them around the rubber ring, use the saran-wrap as a lens to turn it into a make-shift laser which I can use to render myself sterile.”

Ok. Look at all the logical steps required to get from point 1 to point 6 there. Look at how 4 serves as both a punch-line and a set up. He draws a logical line, extends it to an absurd place, extends that absurdity to another logical line, and then brings that to an even more impressive level of absurdity. It’s fucking great, and it reflects a kind of depth that could realistically only be achieved by writing it in advance (other requirements include being funny). Ok, sure, the joke is about MacGyver, which means he can’t in good conscience tell it to anyone under the age of 21, but who cares, because people who can’t buy alcohol are too busy obsessing over how to get alcohol to laugh at jokes anyway. Take that collegehumor.com…

The Fight:
This is not intended as an insult to improvisers or improv as a format. Leaving aside improv for its own sake, it helps build strong performing skills. Good improvisers exhibit a kind of immediate responsiveness and vibrancy that can be found lacking in more “prepared” performances like sketch and stand up3. I think most people who have been doing stand up for a while will testify that when you start doing it, you’re basically just presenting the material you wrote and hoping it will go over with the audience, but over time you get more comfortable listening, paying attention to what’s going on both in terms of your own material and with the room. You get so you can more easily add stuff that is immediately and sometimes only relevant to that night. And that’s the kind of thing that can leave an audience walking out telling their friends “oh shit, it was awesome, but you just kind of had to be there.” Zach Galifianakis is a good example of someone who does this really well. His material (for the most part) is really strong conceptually, but at the same time he can fly off the handle and bounce in between at one moment being shy and reserved and the next exploding violently at the audience, but in a way that they (usually) understand is (usually) all part of the joke (…usually).


Me! This is about Me!!:
My love of stand up comes fundamentally from the fact that it can so deeply explore relationships between concepts, society, and your own life experience in a way that just excites me on an intellectual and emotional level. That said, I recognize that stand up is live performance, and at its best it should represent both the prepared material but also the vital improvised response to what’s happening in the room on any given night. If you’re not going to aspire to that, then why do live comedy at all?


For me, long term I know I need to do more improv. Right now I’m learning on the job, which is proving to be a really exciting challenge, but one I could probably navigate better with more direct experience in improv. For a lot of people improv is what they love doing and just want to keep doing it forever and that’s awesome for them; for me, I think it’s a means to an end. When I look at myself and honestly evaluate why I keep getting up on stage, it’s because I love telling people what I think about things, I love constructing my joke/puzzles as cleverly and tightly as I’m able, I love making people laugh. Bottom line? I love doing stand up. When I don’t hate it.

Next Up: The Improviser, Jason Saenz

FULL DISCLOSURE:
Over the past 3 years I have been performing, taking a class or rehearsing long-form improv at least two nights a week. Before that I had performed in ComedySportz type shows i.e. "Whose Line." in highschool and college. I am happy to say though, I have never been in a group that wore the same color t-shirts. I have been digging into the world of stand-up since May 2007 and I strive to find the common ground between the two styles. Writing jokes, in the pure "sit down and write" sense, continues to be a challenge for me.

THE GRIPE:
That improvisers cannot make the leap to stand-up as well as others. Also, that anything not pre-planned completely or a bit that inherently requires thinking on your feet is not stand-up comedy.
When in fact, the foundations of improv transcend into the world of standup more deeply than most people think and that a good understanding of improv will only help you recognize the strengths and weakness of your set and what you can do to address them.

COMEDY AUTOPSY:
Improv schools like The Annoyance and UCB teach game and pattern work as the fun of the scene, and ultimately the reason why you would want to see that scene again. It's the exact same thing with a well constructed joke, i.e. Bryson's small condom joke.

1) Small Condoms= Not a big seller (establishing the game)
2) Guys w/ Small dick = don't need a condom because they are resourceful (still heightening the game of "small condoms don't sell")
3) MacGyver = has a small dick (capping the game by taking it to the most resourceful guy ever and why he would never buy one when he could just make one himself)

Improv gets your brain thinking in patterns, raising the stakes and recognizing why audiences enjoy seeing them. It also in a way, teaches you the Comedy Rule of 3. That the third beat of a pattern is the funniest, if it was properly established and heightened in the first two beats. This is something many good stand-up jokes adhere to. I do believe that this is not only achievable by writing it in advance but that it can be done onstage as well, because a smart comic/improviser could see the 3 beat possibility from just the reaction to the initial premise.

The Fight:
This is not to say that writing and working on material offstage is not the best way to be comically creative. It definitely has established itself as the backbone to standup. I know it is something I want to get better at. What I am saying is that audiences react to the same thing, regardless of the medium. In standup, improv and even comedy editing you want to trim the fat and heighten the joke. There are things that are specifically taught in improv that will help any standup comedian. Examples like; realistic character work, having a strong initiation, not dropping your "deal" and being confident. Those are all fundamental concepts that my favorite comedians excel at and also what good improv coaches teach.

Me! This is about Me!:
My love of improv comes from the fact that I can create something from nothing, by understanding what makes something fun to watch. I also love that improv teaches you to give and take, how take care of your partner as you bolster yourself as well and to always think of how I can agree and 'Yes And..' something. It puts my mind in the right direction and clears up all roadblocks that take me away from the fun. It excites me, to think a scene literally about nothing at all, can cause people to hoot and applaud and never be able to explain it to their friends. It was just for them.

For me, I am still adjusting to the transition from the group mentality of improv to the solo dependency of stand-up. I can tell you what I see the benefits of each are: improv teaches you to trust your partner and to truly know how they are going to react next. “I set them up, you knock them down.” This translates better to sketch writing and character creation than I believe stand-up does. I mean, just look at the history of the cast members of SNL. The majority are improvisers. Stand-up has taught me though, how to be more confident. That at the end of the day I have just myself to rely on. I don’t think you can truly find your “voice” as a comedian, without performing stand-up. It just forces you to say to yourself “how do I want to present myself, what type of comedian do I want to be?” Stand-up instills self promotion and learning to do that is just something you have to do in the world of comedy.

For me, long term I know I need to do more standup. I always want to continue doing improv, because I really believe it makes me fundamentally a better comedian. But, when I look at myself and honestly evaluate why I keep getting up on stage, it’s because I love sharing something about myself with people that will make them laugh and Stand-up does that for me as well. I just love improv because I can create something out of a mistake, a moment, a gesture or a silence that will resonate with someone else. It's kinda magical. When it doesn't completely suck.