About Matt McDonald Expertise I DO NOT FULFILL REQUESTS TO TELL JOKES! PLEASE DON'T ASK. I can answer questions regarding getting started in stand-up comedy: what to expect, what to do before, during and after your first show, pushing past stage fright and associated pants-wetting fears and so on. I am also reasonably comfortable talking about the basic business aspects of stand-up where beginners are concerned.
Experience I DO NOT FULFILL REQUESTS TO TELL JOKES! PLEASE DON'T ASK. Experience in the area I "worked" for nine years as a stand-up comic in Ohio. Most of my experience comes from open mics, local competitions and the like but I do have some familiarity with "the road" as it pertains to beginners. I have counseled/coached/mentored several people who wanted to get into stand up and wanted the full lowdown on what to expect once they started to pursue it in earnest. In 1994, I made more money from winning local open mic night contests than I did at my actual job. I also performed in improv comedy for a couple of years, though I never considered myself very good at it - I can answer general questions re: improv as well.
Due to a volatile temper and abysmal luck, I never managed to make it to the next rung of the ladder. Middle age has mellowed me and now you can learn from my mistakes.
Jokes & Comedians - Taking a Beginner's Improv Class ... Do you have to already be funny?
Expert: Matt McDonald - 10/24/2007
Question Hi,
I'm interested in taking an beginner's improv workshop. People have said that I'm funny, but I'm pretty shy when I first meet people, and it takes a while for me to open up. Also, I'm not very good at public speaking. I love watching Improv, I go to various clubs in LA and it's hilarious and I find myself saying, "I want to be that person".
Anyway, so now I really want to take an Improv Class, but my biggest fear is that when I'm "on the spot" I'll draw a blank, feel stupid, and be scared that everyone's watching me. Can you tell me a little about how beginning improv classes are? Will I feel silly, or will I fit right in?
Thanks,
Mem
Answer Hi Mem,
>Can you tell me a little about how beginning improv classes are?
All improv classes are different in terms of style, content and value. What I would tell you is to do your homework - see if you can find a workshop that's taught by someone with some serious credentials like Second City alums or that type of person.
Also, make sure the class is designed as a true class, and not as a "try out". Some improv groups hold workshops that are open to the public, with the idea that they'll find new talent and eventually be able to put those people into their group. Those workshops can be somewhat intense, as some groups will expect you to have experience in some form or another. And if you aren't good, they won't hesitate to uninvite you eventually.
What I would suggest - and keep in mind, my knowledge of how improv works is limited - is to start with a no-pressure beginner's class. These are readily available and generally, they're for people just like yourself who want to test the waters in a low-risk environment. So they're designed to be just for fun, with nobody watching.
As I already mentioned, make sure the teacher(s) have some credentials in serious, theater style improv. I mean, if I wanted I could "teach" improv because I have some experience at it. But my experience is very, very low-end and I don't have the chops that a real improv performer would. So I'd be teaching you crappy improv. So be careful who you go to.
Once you've spotted a class, talk to the instructor. Ask him/her what their beginner's class is like, what constitutes a "beginner" as far as they're concerned, what aspects of improv are stressed most clearly, etc.
Look for classes that concentrate on basics. You want to see a curriculum that includes a lot of theory and doesn't get into "playing games" as the lion's share of the class. For example, in the troupe I was in, we always started workshop with a warm-up game. This was a game that would never, ever be played on stage, but is designed to concentrate on memory, or making offers, or accepting offers, or exploring the stage, etc. The "artsy" side of improv. BUt then we'd get right into actual stage games. We never really focused on the fundamental aspects of improv and as a result we never really a solid troupe AND we could never really hepl beginners develop.
So look for classes that will teach you fundamentals like making offers, expressing physicality, "feel your shoes", trusting your partner, "knowing what's beyond" and that sort of thing. Stay away from workshops that emphsize learhing stage-games. That really should come only later as you've got your feet under you.
SO if you talk to an instructor and he tells you you'll be in full-fledged scenes in the first class or two, look elsewhere in my opinion.
>Will I feel silly, or will I fit right in?
Most likely, you'll feel very exposed, vulnerable and out of place. That's one of the reasons it's really important to pick the right workshop. If you get thrown into a scene with an experienced performer right away, you'll likely fall on your face and make a real mess of things. However, a true beginner's workshop should never, ever put you in a position where failure is as or more likely than success at any given task.
As a result, a lot of beginner's workshops, the first few sessions will likely not involve any real exposure on a personal level. What I mean is that you'll probably spend a lot of the first session or two doing activites where there is no pressure. These might be simple exercises like miming a space until the rest of the group can guess where you are, or other simple "no fault" games. The purpose is two begin developing stage readiness, basic improv skills and becoming familiar with your classmates. You know, it really helps to realize that most everybody in the class is as scared and out of place as you are.
>my biggest fear is that when I'm "on the spot" I'll draw a blank, feel stupid, and be scared that everyone's watching me.
Well, that's going to happen. Nobody is on all the time and nails every opportunity. And that gets to a lot of what I've been saying. A good improv teacher or coach will tell you very early on that the essence of improv is not comedy but acting. So the point of a scene is not always to make it funny, but to make it real.
For example, it is very funny, when in a scene, to intentionally screw around with your scene partners, doing things that put them in impossible positions, or making the scene absurd and that sort of thing. But it's terrible improv because those scenes typically devolve into things that can't be resolved. They have no conclusion, just an ending. It's better to be straight in most cases than it is to be goofy, or wacky or absurd *even if it's not as funny at the time*.
One of the fundamental rules of improv is "always say yes" or "always accept the offer". When you're in a scene with a partner and they provide some piece of information, you should pretty much always take it as offered. In other words, let's say your partner starts a scene with "I'm sorry I wrecked the car, dad." Notice that this sets up a lot of stuff very quickly: the relationship, the situation, etc. Now imagine you said "I'm not your father. I'm a police officer." That might be momentarily funny just because it will wrong-foot your scene partner - it'll make them look stupid and the audience will chuckle at the confusion. But notice what it does: it destroys the scene because now your partner can ONLY go with you. If you had acknowledged the offer and then made another - "Well son, we have to make sure your mother doesn't find out" - the scene would have gone somewhere and both of you would be able contribute. But when you say no to the offer and hijack things, your scene partner is really kind of hobbled and you have to make the scene go on your own.
So being funny isn't really the point. Most good improv comics will tell you that the funniest scenes are the ones where the humor comes out of the situation or the characters, not the words or intentional punchlines. A friend of mine who got heavily into improv actually did classes where if you did an intentional punchline during a scene, he kicked you out of the scene. Many good improv-ers consider punchlines *a bad thing*.
Additionally, all the fundamentals do a lot to help you think more in the moment, so it gets easier to hit the right marks as you learn the basics. It's much harder to get funny of you're just immediately thrown into things and that's why some classes are better than others.
Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of the humor of improv comes out of characters, not "punchlines". So a good improv class should help you learn to develop characters. There was a guy in my improv group who approached certain scenes as a character - which is to say, he'd decide that in this scene, his character was motivated by X. And he'd use that as a thread throughout the scene to try and figure out how to "play" with the offers made by his partner. For example, going back to the idea above of the son wrecking the car, based on that offer, he might decide that the father was very concerned about how this would affect his insurance rates. That then gives him some means of moving his character through the action. And the fact that this character has this "motivation" might lead to some humor somewhere down the line. Learning how to do that - how to find a character on the fly - is an important skill for developing yourself into a good improv actor.
What I would advise is to actually throw this out to your potential improv teacher. Just ask them "I'm worried I'm not going to be funny. Is that a problem?" If they say "yes", move along because they're not going to give you waht you need at this stage.
