What Can We Learn in Lockdown
“We all know that listening is one of the most important elements of improv, but now you’ve really got to put your money where your mouth is”
What can we learn about improv comedy - an art form that bubbles into existence entirely from the joy of building ideas through group connection and feeding off the reaction from the audience - in a situation where all of those things are made more difficult?
It’s something I’ve had to think about a lot as headteacher of the Free Association. What can we offer students? What can we confidently say would be worthwhile doing in such an unusual medium? My motto through this has been to look for things which we can design FOR online, rather than trying to crowbar what we do so well face-to-face into an unsuited medium. In other words, if there were no pandemic, would this still be a viable course to do online?
So, what can we learn in this medium? Well, there’s more than you’d expect in some ways, and less in others.
There’s certainly plenty of theory to discuss and it would be easy to put together a ton of online seminars which involved nothing more than picking apart the whys and hows of improv. Online works perfectly for that, no need for a stage or space, just an opportunity to discuss and analyse the ins and outs of improv, Game, point of view, crazy town, yes anding, yessing, and anding. Personally, I’d enjoy doing that. All of my thoughts on improv don’t have anywhere to go other than spilling out at my friends and family, like a dog with too much energy running round and round the living room crashing into furniture. Allowing me to run an online seminar would be like opening the back door and watching me bolt out into the garden, through the fence and into a field, slumping back later covered in mud to fall asleep next to the bin... and I’m not sure that would work for everyone. Surely we can do more than just talking about improv?
I decided to focus on courses that allow you to dig into this theory and put into practice elements that aren’t reliant on being physically present to work. Do you need a refresher on finding Game? Being more grounded in scenes? Making emotional connections? These all relate to listening and making choices in scenes and you can still work on them remotely.
Even the basics, being brave enough to invent something and feel supported and ‘yes’d’ by the group. Learning that everyone has your back no matter what. Behaving silly and having the joy of seeing everyone around you do the same. That can still be there. So, even if someone has never taken improv before, there is still a way to teach them how inclusive and rewarding it can be.
It’s actually wonderful how much fun scenes can still be in an online medium. If you’ve practiced improv at all online, or taken some courses already, you may have found yourself pleasantly surprised by how much feels the same building a scene together online as it does face-to-face. You still get that sense of playing, finding Game, building a world and characters together. It certainly exercises some key improv muscles, you’re doing a lot of dialogue and laughing at each other still (which means something’s working).
There are a few things that being online will force you to get better at. We all know that listening is one of the most important elements of improv, but now you’ve really got to put your money where your mouth is. How good are you at listening when making a noise whilst someone else is talking can cut your scene-partner’s audio, or another player’s audio, or make both of your dialogue indecipherable to everyone else? How good are you really at giving and taking in a scene when you can’t pick up on tiny social cues and have to just stop talking altogether to let someone else in?
I’ve been constantly impressed with how many elements of the way we play that can still be taught and improved by online courses and how amazingly our teachers at the FA have been doing in the circumstances. Everyone is still so keen to work on the theory, execution, choices and good habits that can be instilled in players. But, we’ve learnt that we certainly can’t do it how we’ve done it before and it’s important to craft the course structure, notes and exercises directly for that online medium.
So, if you’re on the fence about trying it online, then I recommend giving it a go, whether that’s a course, a one-off, or just arranging to hang out and practice with your classmates (from the ‘before’ time). You can still keep flexing those improv muscles in different ways.
Just remember, once we’re out the other end and you can stand on stage again, take that opportunity to make your first scene anything other than two people sitting down talking.
Alex Holland is a writer, comedian and Head Teacher at The Free Association. He has a Royal Television Society Award for creating the short-film sketch-show 'Best Friends That Love Each Other' and is a co-director of the very serious Chrysalis Theatre company.
You can see Alex performing in:
The Petting Zoo, The Cartel, Jacuzii, The Nearly News show, Chrysalis Theatre and more...
