The main difficulty in gaining a deeper understanding of just about anything, is that we tend to view things in isolation. Consequently we see impro, as being solely about performance, theatre maybe, having fun, comedy, and so on. Being identified with our view of the world means we have this narrow focus and this prevents us seeing that that things do connect. One thing does merge into another. Our narrow focus though demands that it doesn’t. In this purist sense then, impro is only about impro, as theatre is only about theatre, and film is only about film. Put another way, we do not see that life is a whole, and that if we are going to tune up one area, like say the performance area, we do need to carry that through and tune up all the other areas. Like for example, we can become a better improviser, and still be terrible at relationships. For these are two different things, quite unconnected, and we have decided we want to be better at impro, for we have performance ambitions in that area, but we are not too bothered about relationships, for we feel that that’s just how we are. Or that this is not our preference, for something to work with. Now what I have spoken about here is something which it is very difficult for the rational mind to grasp. This is a truth you cannot flatten out and explain. Consequently I’ll begin this exposé of the shocking truth about impro, by saying that it doesn’t matter if cannot grasp what I am saying here. SHOCK! HORROR! Try to let go of that desire to analytically understand everything, at least in this context. And then try to just flow with your feelings. So in the end, if all this article does, should you get to the end of it, is just to annoy you, then that in a way is good. It is how you feel. And that is the right place to start. And if you can do this and keep doing this whilst suspending judgement, understanding will arrive, sooner or later.
The shocking truth: The Beginning!
So, to begin with, in the first instance, no matter what the deeper truths of the impro scene are, I would encourage everyone to do it. Working with our blocks and inhibitions in a creative way, can only be a good thing. This holds good even if your interest in impro is purely a performers interest, and not a therapeutic one. Now, moving on to the deeper truths, when people first come to impro they are to different degrees blocked and inhibited, lacking trust and technique, and through doing impro, they are taught a set of rules, which greatly facilitate being un-blocked and spontaneous. And this really facilitates performance, helping the performer’s gifts to really shine through. You internalise the right response to situations, those which allow space, development, and general positive characteristics, and this leads to more satisfying performances. This is the blueprint Keith Johnson, who wrote the book on it, has given us. So job done! People are now free spontaneous improvisers! So what’s the problem?
The problem is, and this is a truth we’d all, in our mad scramble for fame and glory, much rather ignore, is that impro shows are entertaining and funny, and audiences are amazed to see people working without a script, and yet these same shows are also predictable, and a bit stereotypical, with obvious plots and obvious characters. To recap, you create a comedy product, but it lacks authenticity, or any deeper level. What you get is the appearance of spontaneity, but not spontaneity itself. You don’t get anything new, quirky, left field or original. Now if we just want bland X-factor type entertainment this is fine. But if we want, like Oliver, a little more, then this a problem. And if that the case we must identify where problem stems from. Now. I always felt uncomfortable in impro classes because people would insist on me following the rules. And I knew, the rules do work. I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH RULES!!! I am not proposing anarchy. Society needs its rules and laws to function effectively. So why was I uncomfortable? And then I realised this was because a part of me knew to be spontaneous, you can’t really follow rules, no matter how well they work! The one doesn’t jibe with the other. The definition of spontaneity is something beyond rules, not in their moral sense, but in sense of what kind of behaviour is allowed. If I push a custard pie in a vicar’s face at a Fete, it would go against the rules of polite behaviour, and yet it would be spontaneous! No question. Pie. Face. Spontaneous. This makes me think of course of Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice In Wonderland, a situation with a lot of rules about polite behaviour, the English Tea Party, which the Hatter and Hare do not subvert, but simply ignore, thus making an outrageous scene.
Now I’m well aware that most people are happy with the bland predict-able safe comfortable option. They don’t want to be challenged, and neither do they think it is necessary to be challenged. Why bother to think deeply about things, when you have another champagne party instead????? No. This not an easy option. It is very much the ‘unknown’. And that is frightening and difficult. But still. Think. If we hadn’t embraced the ‘unknown’, we wouldn’t have air travel. The internet. Seinfeld. And do you really want to live in a world without those things???
Lecture over. AND NOW IT’S…
The shocking truth!
What has happened is this. The improviser has replaced a bad set of rules, with a good set of rules, but he still in many ways no better off, for he still following a set of rules!!!!!!!!!!!! The point being that our inhibition was never the problem. The problem was what created the inhibition,in the first place, which was rules themselves! So if we continue to adhere to systems that use rules, we are continuing to inhibit ourselves at some deeper level!!! Another way we could put this is to say that in applying the rules and standards that apply to life, society, human conduct, too impro, we are ignoring the fact that impro isn’t life. It is fantasy. Invented. An imaginative realm. So the problem is one of discrimination. We do not discriminate between life, and not-life!!! So that’s all it is. A very simple truth. And yet, one that it is extremely difficult to grasp, as it is really to do with the heart, and not with the head.
Finally, you may think, but this negative truth does not empower me! But think. We automatically see the negative as being something bad and undesirable. And yet in truth, it is just a different type of energy. Positive energy. Negative energy. In physics they wouldn’t say negative energy bad. That would be ridiculous, even for scientists!!! And this is just social conditioning, that has always insisted that we must avoid the dark side. And so we discriminate against, and not between. Bad. Doh! But finally, my last appeal, I would also encourage you to look at successful comedy people like Spike Milligan, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, and many more. These marvellous people who have done so much to change our awareness of things, and ask yourself, do these people follow the rules???????????? The answer is no. What they have in common is a disregard for rules in general. Look at Cleese goose-stepping in front of the german tourists. Is this following the rules???????????????????Is it???? (Don’t mention the war!!!)
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