In Improv it is very important to always remember to commit to the NOW. Think falling boulder… if there is a boulder falling over your head, you either move or become the new pancake special. This method of quick thinking, will allow you to react naturally, and more precisely, thus furthering the scene that is happening right now on stage. Having said that, if one desires to create the scene of, oh i don’t know, lets say…. a falling boulder!!?? You dont want to talk about the falling boulder, you need to show it. The audience wants to see that boulder fall. Though, i’m sure we could all come up with a great “i remember the time when that giant boulder fell…” story, we need to provide some sort of action for the audience that is watching right now. A little excitement. Let the audience experience what it would be like to witness an actual boulder falling out of the sky! Please don’t get me wrong, i LOVE breakfast and all but there’s a time and place for pancakes, unfortunately the stage is neither. So move!Interact! React! Do! Create the entertainment of action… Lets leave the “story telling” stuff to the Pro’s.

Some of you may remember from your previous acting lessons, early on, an exercise called “Trust Falls”… In short, one person stands in front of another, and he/she is asked to “fall” backwards, trusting the person in back will catch them. In a way, Improv is a lot like a giant “trust fall”.  While on stage, you must be able to “trust” that when you take the “story” in a certain direction, your team mate(s) will be there to “catch” you and guide the story in the same mutual direction.

If you try to be the “funny guy” who says the unthinkable, or unexpected, if you will, you may end up catching, not only the audience but, your own teammates waaay off gaurd. So much so that if you where actually going to fall at this point, your teammates may be turned around in the complete opposite direction, fully unaware that their teammate was going to fall at that specific (random) moment. Thus, possibly causing the whole show to “fall off course”. So remember, when your on stage, to “fall unfailingly” and  avoid that pesky “skull-cracking” sound… audiences hate that sound.

If you immediately start doing what ever feels natural to be doing in such a situation… whatever it is you feel would be the usual thing you’d be doing if you were where “they” (who ever set the stage with the location) “placed” you… This is another part of the definition of “Funny” (“attempting to amuse”)…

By your “attempting” to adapt to the situation at hand, and going with your first instinct, you are providing the audience a chance to see that situation play out in a manner that they may not have ever seen it done before, and the abruptness of the decision to “take it there”, if you will, may very well lead to what the audience believes to be “amusing”… Thus “causing” amusement… further proving the above statement, “You ARE funny”! The “amusement” comes a lot more naturally than you think.

You ARE:

fun-ny   [ fuhn-ee ]

1.)providing fun;  causing amusement or laughter; amusing; comical: a funny remark; a funny person.

2.)attempting to amuse;

Improv does not call for a particularly amusing character…

Once you have a grasp on where you are “located”, you can then go ahead and make the “attempt” to interact with your surroundings… only you know what there is to use… Everything and Anything! Now you are free to be…funny!