Welcome to the show.

Hello.

Here is a blog.

It seems only right that starting this, I talk a little about starting shows. Here's some context...

A question from a phone conversation I had last night is sitting with me at the minute, we're drinking tea as I write. The question is this:

"Do we need to ask for suggestions before improvising?"

My knee-jerk answer is no. We don't need to. But then why do we? Because we always have before? To demonstrate to the audience that we're improvising? Because the ask is a useful device to unify the group mind? Is it a good way of making you think differently? Should we not get suggestions at all? I'll get round to my thoughts on the above questions in due course, right now I feel like gen'ralisin'.

I hear people talk about the mercurial nature of inspiration like it's a timid kitten or, as in a recent article in the guardian, a skittish deer. Something that requires gentle coaxing and care that might vanish back into the dense, cognitive woodland if we tread on a twig (not the kitten obviously). People talk of being "bereft of inspiration", I commonly feel uncreative in my company's main office, whereas there are folks who are prolific, never seeming to run out of ideas, suffer writer's block or "dry up", regardless of environmental factors.

My point, relates to improv. In many improv formats, there is, hard wired into the firmament* of the structure is the ask. May I have a word please?", "An object bigger that this?", "Can I have a word please? Say, that reminds me of..."They're there! Right at the top of the Harold, most every Armando I've ever seen begins with one of these and they're even more prevalent in short form improvisation. The question asks "why?" and in an environment where there are traditionally no wrong choices, that's almost impossible to answer. For the sake of argument, let's look at a generic short-form scene for now and not bring Harolds and their kin into this.

It seems to me (and by inference all rational people**) that getting an suggestion from the audience is the norm in the eyes of the public and many improvisers. If you ask someone to describe an improv show to you, ten'll get you twenty that shouting stuff out will be included in the early stages. Hell, most improv shows I've seen get the audience to practice shouting stuff out (wait, I do this. Why the hell do I do this? Do I not trust the audience to be able to think on the fly? I have to warn them? Rehearse them?). Is the fact that we usually begin with a suggestion a good argument against the obvious alternative of starting without one? I'm not convinced it is. Is the fact that I usually take milk in my tea a reason to not try it black? (I have a longer diatribe here about different patterns in improvisation and this sentence is here to remind me to write it.)

A suggestion can inspire, in fact my feeling is that the best reason for getting a suggestion from the audience is to inspire a scene and to force me out of my usual patterns of thought. I have a few things that I keep coming back to in scenes, when I recognise them I try to eliminate them, at the moment the list includes birds of prey, high status buffoons and bad Russian accents. These things are almost always quietly waiting in my near obvious, ready to jump into a scene. Getting a suggestion however forces me to accept a new idea, alien to my preexisting obvious that can both surprise and challenge me and in turn, force me into more unfamiliar content or narrative territory. Look for a moment at the Harold, you take a word from the audience, place it like fuel into a machine for spouting related ideas and then use those related ideas as the raw materials for the subsequent show... neat. To surmise, I like suggestions as a means of inspiration. I really do.

"A suggestion can be a useful tool for getting the group on the same page for
the show."

I heard someone say this, or something like it, about two weeks ago and I can't remember who it was. I agree, sort of. I would hope that whatever group is performing should already be on the "same page", I worry that taking this as gospel might limit some people, create a negative sense around jumping and justifying, an idea that if what you're about to do or say isn't immediately relevant to the suggestion, the shows theme, then it's wrong. And any sentence that ends with the word wrong in bold type doesn't sit well with my understanding of improvisation.

The most common justification of the audience suggestion is this:

"If we don't ask the audience for a suggestion, they won't think we're
improvising."

And every single time I hear it, I die a little inside. My preference in this matter is the same as Keith Johnstone's (and sadly I've no book to hand to quote, but I think it's in Impro). As long as the audience are entertained, who cares if they think you're improvising or not? I'm serious. Plus, there's always some fucker who claims you're scripted anyway and you'll never convince him otherwise. The flip side, and this is not a side of this argument I've ever looked at before, does the audience have a justified expectation that you will reassure them that you are improvising? They've presumably paid for improv, how will they know you're providing them with some? There's no hard and fast method that will prove you're genuine, but asks and suggestions are about as convincing as you'll get. I still think it's a weak-ass rationale.

So there, there's some thoughts about suggestions. I was going to talk a little about not getting a suggestion, but I've been writing for an age and want to go make tea. I certainly think starting scenes from nothing is an equally valid method of working and something everybody should try at least in workshops. Personally I like both, sometimes I want a little inspiration from the room, sometimes I don't, sometimes I really want to start a scene with a certain emotion or action sometimes I will and other times I'll kill that idea and get a new one. Besides, who doesn't' like variety?

I guess I ought to make a conclusion eh? I figure, do what you feel is right, but every now and then try something else and check once in a while that you at least have a reason for doing whatever it is you're doing.

You might see this statement paraphrased a lot if I keep this blog up.

Right, that's quite enough for the first post. Maybe I should've started with something smaller. But hey, thanks for reading this far.

Foxcroft

* It's an electronic firmament... one assumes.
**Which is a term I use for people who agree with me.

[Edited to correct my lame-ass HTML formatting issues]