Exploring Meaning In Everything

Howdy, Improv Explorers!

In last week’s blog, I attempted to define improv scenes like this:

“An agreed-upon fictional reality that the performers play with in order to entertain themselves and/or the audience.”

I don’t go slapping this definition in the faces of improvisers. Hell, I routinely forget the exact wording myself. My only goal was to illustrate that improv scenes can be thought of as a self-contained reality.

The goal of today’s blog is to show that every tiny thing that happens on stage tells us something about the reality of the scene.

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Del Close was famously quoted as saying “play paranoid”. Did he mean we should always be playing paranoid conspiracy theorists in our scenes? Probably not. The idea was to inspire players to constantly look for meaning in everything that happens.

Everything means something. Everything is a context clue. How we interpret those context clues defines our play-style, and decides the fate of the scene.

Last weekend, I taught an advanced improv workshop that (in part) focused on this concept. Let’s break down a two person scene from the workshop. This scene illustrates that there are no wrong moves as long as the moves are interesting and make sense within the established reality.

For the privacy of the innocent, let’s call the two players Kyle and Lilly. I’ll use these names to refer to both the players and the characters.

Inspired thematically from a previous scene, Kyle initiates:

KYLE: I don’t think I have a problem. I like being an alcoholic.

Already, this scene is loaded with information to infer.

What we know for sure: Kyle’s character likes being an alcoholic.

What’s probably true: Kyle’s character was accused of having a drinking problem before the scene began. This is a safe assumption because he’s using defensive language and acting in a defensive way.

LILLY: (looking incredulous) Honey… you go out drinking every night. The kids hardly see you!

Great! Lilly listened to her partner and yes-anded him. Not only did she acknowledge that Kyle is an alcoholic, she also implied that she was the accuser. Then she made the stakes personal by making herself his significant other (notice that “honey”?).

KYLE: Look at how much more time they have to study now! If I were around, it would just be a distraction to their education.

Here’s why this line works so well: Earlier, it was established that Kyle likes being an alcoholic. This is an established fact of the scene. Because of Lilly, we now also know that Kyle rarely sees his kids. To rectify these two facts, a big choice was made: Kyle decided that his character genuinely believes that his alcoholism is healthy for his family. This was a fun choice that totally fit with the reality that had been created.

As the scene progressed, we learned more about these characters. Kyle continued to insist that alcoholism is healthy, and Lilly continued to be skeptical. They had set up a classic Game driven scene; Kyle’s point of view was absurd, and Lilly’s point of view was grounded and reasonable.

But then something happened. As Kyle continued to explain why alcoholism is healthy, Lilly got more and more quiet, and eventually started nodding her head. Then she decided to call a babysitter so her and Kyle could go out drinking!

Lilly’s character had been swayed by Kyle’s justification for his actions. And why not? It didn’t contradict anything that had come before. Lilly’s character started angry, then skeptical, then eventually became fully swayed. The game they were playing was over, but they had an unexpected new direction to go in.

There was absolutely no reason why they couldn’t have kept playing the game that they had already established. Lilly could have continued to be the voice of reason, and the scene would have eventually reached a satisfying climax. In spite of that, Lilly made an unexpected move that still fit the reality of the scene. I loved it.

That said, it would have felt strange if Lilly suddenly and abruptly started agreeing with Kyle. It would have felt odd because real people don’t behave that way. It breaks (or at least damages) the reality of the scene. Lilly’s change of heart in this scene worked because it was earned. To an onlooker, it was a believable transition.

Let’s explore some other moves that would have changed the direction of the scene.

What if Kyle had chosen to not care about his kids? The scene would probably have been about Kyle being a no good piece of shit (and proud of it). The game would likely have shifted away from alcoholism, and become about how proud he is of doing shitty things in general. Maybe he slashes tires for fun. Maybe he intentionally yells at wait-staff.

Or what if Kyle chose to act extremely unsure of himself? The scene would have become about Kyle’s character being in denial.

Going back even further in the scene, Lilly could have responded like this:

KYLE: I don’t think I have a problem. I like being an alcoholic.

LILLY: I know, right?! Everyone is always on our back about it, but it’s so much fun!

This response would have resulted in a totally different scene where Kyle and Lilly enable each other. It satisfies and acknowledges the reality just as well as the original response.

For the sake of really driving my point home, I’ll discuss yet another option: What if Kyle and Lilly treated the situation as extremely somber, and focused on the dark realities of alcoholism? This, too, is 100% fine. Would it have a strong game? Maybe, maybe not. Would it be uproariously funny? Maybe, maybe not. Game or no game, funny or somber, it all simply depends on how the actors want to portray the scene.

For me, this is what makes improv a legitimate art form. With our teammates, we get to choose how scenes feel. Through the choices we make, we get to decide the effect our scenes have on the audience. By making choices about the reality of the scene, we choose how we express ourselves.

Every single thing that happens on stage implies something else about the reality. Everything has meaning. What does it mean to you?

The possibilities are always infinite.

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Questions? Comments? Thought experiments you’d like to engage in? I’d love to hear from you. Just reach out!

See you in the next improv exploration!