Listening in Improv Comedy

Video Transcript

"Hi there, it’s Les, author of Plays Well With Others and we’re talking about some basic rules of improvisation. Now if you’ve seen the other clips when we began this list, and we overviewed them. You remember talking about rules that are really good rules of thumb, all rules can be broken, but in general these are going to serve you well. The second rule we’re looking at is listening to your fellow players. Well listening is everything in improvisation, there’s very little that can be done without listening. In Improvisation, we’re listening to audience reaction; we’re following the path the audience is trying to get us to carry them down. We’re listening to our fellow players because that’s where all the ideas are coming from and we’re going to follow each others lead, alternately as we go. We’re also listening to our best instincts and you abandon an idea of yours for an idea that is conflicting with an idea that’s already been presented. So you have to listen very carefully even while focusing on your own work. You’re also going to listen visually, the demeanor and the way the other players carry themselves are going to be one of the reasons why your scene work is going to have texture and relationship. It’s not just a verbal scene, we’re not just listening to you on a CD or something, we’re looking at you, and all that body language really counts especially in games where there’s guessing or interpolations, or you’re just trying to emotionally affect your other players with physicality, you need to be listening visually for that. Also you need to be listening for anything to do with the room or theater, are you being supported by a production staff that’s giving you sound effects or backing music or anything like this? Listening to all of that, it needs to affect all of your choices. So listening is everything. In addition to that, you want to assume that everything that can be said or heard is important and probably has a natural way for you to enjoy including it in the scene. It gives it texture, just because you may not know right away, doesn’t mean it’s not still true. Life is full of surprises, and improv is full of surprises, but it’s all about listening, so there’s rule number two, and if you’ll look for the other clips we have here at Expert Village, you’ll find the other rules on our basic list of five. See you at Expert Village. "