Harold Openers

[millerjake30]

Let's hear about some particular favorite ways to open a Harold. Of cours ethe Draconian by-the-book structure usually features a little bit of a gimmick to it, but I've seen some very successful groups (e.g. Carl and the Passions) use no opening at all, just start right off with a two person scene.

What do you think about how to start the Harold?

What's your favorite way to do it?

Seen any great Harolds lately, or at least great openings?

[Run]

I saw a great one where everyone listed their favorite adjectives whose etymology can be traced back to Ancient Greece.

[Schoolyj]

We see a thread languishing without any serious replies.

[Chip]

A wind blows...whoosh!

[AndyC]

Openings only seem successful when they have a point. Too often folks are freaked by the group mind that isn't occurring an then a whoosh! happens.

My favorite opening style is when it looks like the group is having fun exploring ideas derived from the suggestion.






Wow, that sounds like a really smarmy answer to a simple question.

[Ldub]

One of my all time faves - a few months ago by the Reckoning. They started out describing a room. Someone began their description saying (not word for word) "If you don't mind I'd like to point out the chair.......". Someone continued by saying "If you would be so kind to let me talk about the...." until it was heightened to "I don't want to be a bitch but let's talk about the lamp....." and everyone was yelling at each other about what they were describing. Really good stuff. I'm always a fan of Deep Schwa's opening group scenes too.

[benjohnson]

Like most shitty improv, the shittiest openings are usually second or third rate copies of something another group has done better. And then, if one group is out there doing something really well, like how the Reckoning is great at scene painting something but also paying attention to the patterns in their scene painting to the point where they get angry about describing a lamp, then a lot of other people are going to start doing that sort of thing.

Less well.

Like they just describe the room. And say "uh" a lot. And they start to sweat as if describing this room is the single most important thing, like it's work. Like you couldn't just say "you guys, I don't want to describe this room" and have it be a great opening. Everybody instead decides for some reason that they have to describe this fucking room at any cost.

But they're not really into it so they don't add anything interesting to the details of the room, like one guy will just say "TORN WALLPAPER" really loud like that's inherently funny. It's not. "Torn brown wallpaper with clown design wallpaper underneath" (or something like that, I'm not trying to get all Tim O'Malley here) is more interesting, and will provide more fuel for later in a way that's exciting to explore. But groups generally don't do that. They more often just mimic the surface aspects of a good scene painting opening as if what was working for that other genius group was just the fact that there was scene painting. In other words, without the fun, salient details. And then when halfassed scene painting without the fun salient details doesn't work, the group gets confused and they panic, and the one guy who yelled "TORN WALLPAPER" has to say something else that's kind of funny in order to get the fuck out of the room that they're describing and get on to the unfun scenes that will be bourne out of that "oh no, we have to do this" energy.

Repeat a million times until "scene painting opening" becomes such a bad improv cliche that not even the Reckoning can do it anymore without a major league eye roll.

So listing Harold opening types on the internet is like assuring that there will be certain types of Harold opening that cannot ever be fun again.

I'm not gonna fall into that trap.

Andy's right. Just go out there and have fun. Do six fart jokes in a row and then sweep into a scene if that's your style. That would actually be more interesting at this point.

Love,
THE KING OF IMPROVISATION FOREVEREVER AMEN.

[davec]

My favorite opening is three fingers of jack and two bumps in the greenroom.

[millerjake30]

I agree with you. Too many times the opener ends up being done with that "we have to do this" energy. Being in a very young improv troupe, I can see that happening frequently. Let's just get free and have fun, eh?

[Cooperweb]

Originally Posted by benjohnson

But they're not really into it so they don't add anything interesting to the details of the room, like one guy will just say "TORN WALLPAPER" really loud like that's inherently funny. It's not. "Torn brown wallpaper with clown design wallpaper underneath" (or something like that, I'm not trying to get all Tim O'Malley here) is more interesting, and will provide more fuel for later in a way that's exciting to explore.

This is Tim, isn't it?