Do people think improv is fake?

[Jared]

I was looking at that (ridiculous) channel 5 "iO vs. Zanies" thing, and several comments said things like, "They're just making the audience believe they made it up. Different occupation Different name different town......Same friggin' joke!!!!" or "Improv is a fraud. They practice the "games" and re-create them."

Then I remembered the episode of "That's My Bush" where an improv troupe shows up and a character says this to them: "No! We don't! [buttons his coat] In fact, improv comedy makes me sick! Because you act like it's totally improvisational when in FACT... it's formulas that you rehearse! Over and over and over again, and every night you pretend like you're making it up off the top of your head, and then you LAUGH onstage to make it look real!! I hate you!!! Do you hear me??!! [the players lean back in fright] I said, do you hear me, you sons of bitches??!! "

I found the transcript online but no clip of this speach.

So, I hadn't realized this is a widespread misconception. Where does it come from?

PS. let's not use this as a thread for debating the nbc5 thing or That's My Bush. Yawn.

[Angie]

Yeah I think that is a true belief.

Also goes back to audience members yelling out a suggestion and not thinking we used the suggestion.

Round Christmas 96D got the suggestion of "Greatest Christmas story every told" something like that.

We did scenes about: Holidays (Christmas, Easter), about books and plagiarism, Bedtime stories...etc.

The next group came out and the same woman yelled the same suggestion and added "Since the first group didn't use it"

After the show I talked to her. I said how is it that you think we didn't use your suggestion? Then pointed out all the scenes her suggestion inspired. She sighed and said "Oh I get it. You used words from the phrase not the exact phrase. See I thought you would use the exact phrase. Part of me thought well they are just doing the rehearsed skits and ignored my suggestion."

Since then we have been using the phrase "To inspire our Improvisation can we get a suggestion of a word or phrase"

I also think it has to do with the explination of what they are about to see and setting up the expectation of the night. Cause obviously she thought we were going to do one thing and we didn't let her know other wise till after.

[JRC]

The Harold specifically should be be almost proof of "we used your suggestion" by clearly showing how the suggestion is being explored and heightened and the the scenes clearly come from that opening performance piece.

I liken it to a basketball game.. they can practice and practice, but no one knows what's going to happen on court/stage. Every game/show is different.

I do like how TJ and Dave start their show; "Trust us, this is completely improvised." and there's this implicit contract between improviser and audience... I'm going to improvise and trust you to understand. I'm going to watch and trust you to improvise.

[kelsevinal]

My father came to see Electric Mayhem when we opened up for Felt once. My father, a former Chicago police officer, is a somewhat suspicious man. He literally sat next to my mother during the show and several times said variations of the phrase "You know, they could have a script back there or something, we can't see them." My mom tried pointing out the multiple ways in which they clearly must be improvising, including incorporating the random suggestion (which when I first started doing improv my father was convinced was "a plant"), but he remained unconvinced.

He did not enjoy Felt; to their credit, he was convinced that anything that funny must be pre-written.

When I told him that me, his son, can walk back stage and LOOK AT THEM IMPROVISING BEHIND THE CURTAIN WITHOUT A SCRIPT, only then did he begrudgingly admit that while he trusts ME that they're improvising, what about the average audience member who doesn't have that "inside information"? I pointed out that they would probably walk into Chicago's home for longform improvisation and expect to see improvisation, puppets or no. He didn't concede that point, and that's where we left that.

We're about 9 months further down the road now, and while he's seen several other shows, both at iO and elsewhere, and knows that when it's just PEOPLE on stage they're making it up, I'm not going to invite him back to see Felt again, in case he tries to rush the stage and expose those puppetmasters for the scripted scammers that they are.

[Chip]

Well, the script thing is easy to debunk on a stage that has no backstage, like the Cabaret. I think it's actually kind of cool when people think there's no way we could really be doing what we say we are. It's like if David Copperfield was actually doing magic and not creating illusions. People are used to illusions. I don't hold it against them.

I don't know if there's one introduction to improv that adequately can explain exactly what it is we do to someone who has never seen it. Like I said, people are used to prepared entertainment. Actually, prepared is a bad word. All of us have prepared to be on stage. Pre-assembled, then.

There are plenty of musicians (yes, particularly jazz musicians) who go out there with only the skeleton of a song, onto which they improvise the meat of it. I've played in a band that had improvisational solos in some of the songs. Nobody ever asked us if we pre-planned the solos.

So I wonder if it's just a tipping point thing, where enough people know about music and know that improvisation happens, and that if improvisational acting were more widespread, there wouldn't be the same questions about whether or not it's real.

I think ultimately, if the skeptical person in the audience likes what they'll see, they'll come back and they'll realize that it's all made up.

[Sarah]

Yes.

I distinctly remember my godfather refusing to watch "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" because he was adamant that it was all rehearsed. He called it a "crock."

Also, even if people realize that there is some fluidity and improvisation involved, they still think there are certain bullet points that we know we are going to hit. They think we remount the good scenes or funny exchanges from rehearsals.

Just yesterday one of my coworkers asked me, "So what are some of your characters? What are their names?".. as if I have a litany of characters with specific names that I pull out every show. (Now, I certainly have my go-to types, which I shouldn't, but this is different.) When I explained to her that we often don't even get to decide what our character's name is in a scene, that it's up to our scene partner, I think she started to get it.

So, not everyone, but yes.

[Dan Richter]

Originally Posted by JRC

I do like how TJ and Dave start their show; "Trust us, this is completely improvised."

Yes. That really struck me when I saw them 6 years ago. It's as simple as that!

Two weeks ago we asked the audience for a small object as a suggestion. They suggested "pen".
We played a great story - made it suspenseful and had interesting characters. After the show a woman came to me and asked me why we hadn't used the suggestion. Only the I realized, she was right.

[Miss Mason]

Yes!

The 1st time I went with Baby Wants Candy to the Edinburgh Fringe festival we were accused of writing 30 musicals...

I was like cause that's WAY easier then making 'em up on the spot?!

It was crazy. Longform was still on the DL then and there though... now it is more known.

I think people just can't imagine the kind of stamina needed and the agreement to group work necessary to pull off long form improv.

[JPanic]

I always just try to do the worst show possible. That way, the skeptical audience member will say, "Wow, that was horrible - no way in hell could anyone script something that poorly!"