Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation (5 page)

LEARNING TO MAKE CONNECTIONS

The Pattern Game is basically a word association game. The
players take turns calling out
words and short phrases inspired
by previous words and phrases, in order to connect as many
pieces
of information as possible.

Connections made during the game moves will allow players to discover different levels
of meaning to their ideas, as well as inspire additional ideas for
the scenes to come. The Pattern
Game is a great way to demonstrate the principle of "Finding Order Out of Chaos."

Among other uses, the Pattern Game is the beginning of the process of engendering a
"Group Mind," something that we'll delve into much deeper
in the chapters to come. When the
Pattern Game is used as the opening exercise for a Harold, the audience sees the group
developing its point of view toward its theme; this happens as the group shares information,
ideas, and attitudes.

Different groups operating on the same suggestion will usually come up with totally
different sets of ideas; one group can play the Pattern Game twice with the same suggestion
and probably end up with different results. The game is really a process of discovery and
exploration to prepare a group for the main event.

THE PATTERN GAME: EXAMPLE 1

Here are two separate pattern games, done by different groups, but both based on the
suggested theme "dog":

Team A

"Collar."

"Police."

"K-9."

"Rin Tin Tin."

"Barking up the wrong tree."

"Firemen."

"101 Dalmatians."

"Open 24 hours."

"I read it in the Sunday papers."

"Sentence."

17

"Death."

"Bergman."
"Bird dog."

"Bird Man of Alcatraz."
"Prison."

"Bondage."

"Collar."

Team B

"Loyalty."

"Man's best friend."

"Barking."

"Sit."

"You can have the kids. I'll take the dog."
"Stay."

"Caged."

"Divorce."

"Heel."

"Barking."

"Cat fight."

"His bark is worse than his bite."
"He's a stray."

Team A's use of the "dog" theme revealed ideas about crime and punishment; Team B
discovered levels of failed human relationships, in addition to animal-human relationships.

PATTERN-MAKING MADE EASY

As shown in the previous examples, the Pattern Game requires players to heighten the
moves, but not to comment or
explain them to the audience. It has to be played thoughtfully,
and each player's response should be based on the meaning of what has gone before, not on wit
utilized for a cheap laugh. If a player responds with the word "sex," the next player should
know better than to respond with "fun" or "not enough." These may be personal opinions, but a
better and more intelligent response would be to phrase those opinions into a move that
forwards the game. "Sex" may make a player think of "blue eyes," which leads someone else to
respond with "Paul Newman," prompting a subsequent player to name his favorite Paul

18

Newman movie. Combining the meanings of these moves eventually results in the formation
of definite themes.

There are different methods of playing the Pattern Game and an experienced player will
discover more sophisticated game moves. One of these is known as “skipping a joke”.
If one
player says
"Harry Truman" and the next player responds with "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a hip
audience will appreciate the fact that they've skipped over the obvious, "Truman Capote." The
more familiar a group becomes with the Pattern Game, the more variations and refinements
they'll discover.

All of the themes developed during the course of the game become themes for the Harold,
and the tiniest, most innocuous phrase used is fair game for use in the main body of the Harold
itself.

Even though the suggestion from the audience provides the inspiration for the Harold, the
theme itself is developed by the players during the Pattern Game. The teams raise the level of
the audience suggestion as they explore what it means to each of them —
no matter how banal
the suggestion from the audience may seem, the players will make it profound.

THE PATTERN GAME: EXAMPLE TWO

Some Pattern Games circle back to the first move made, but others encompass the entire
outline for the scenes in a Harold, such as the following game based on an audience suggestion
of "Camera":

"High school."

"High speed."

"Dope."

"Indy 500."

"Most likely to ..."

"Crash and burn."

"In memoriam."

"Viet Nam."

"Don't write on the wall."

"Smokin'."

"I caught you."

"Smile!"

"I think I got it."

"Clap."

"I think I got it."

"The answer is ..."

"Let's see what develops."

19

"I think I got it."

"Photo finish."

"By a nose."

"Buy a vowel."

"By the hair of my chinny chin chin."
"Buying a bond."

"Propaganda."

"Buy it."

"Viet Nam."

"Bye, bye."

"Dope."

"Speed."

"It happened so fast."

"Indy 500."

"High speed."

"High school."

This Pattern Game inspired scenes with numerous levels, following the lives of four
youths through high school —
a fast-
paced life of fast cars, drugs, sex, and smokin' in the
boys' room, progressing to their Viet Nam experiences. A scene about the Viet Nam memorial
was inspired by connections to reading the bathroom wall in high school.

It all resulted from the simple method of ordering information through a unique method
of communication —
the Pattern Game.

THE RULES OF THE GAME

Throughout this book, we will be using examples of different improv games to
underscore the comedic principles involved. There
is some similarity to playing games like
Hide-and-Seek, inasmuch as there are basic rules of each game that must be understood and
followed.

Anyone can improvise, but like any game, if the players don't learn and obey the rules, no
one will play with them. In childhood games like Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers,
if someone is shot, he has to "die." If he is taken prisoner and tied up, he has to remain tied up
until someone frees him. A child who doesn't follow these rules won't be very popular in his
neighborhood.

There are plenty of rules in improvisation, as a quick thumb through this book will show.
However, one of the first rules is "There are no rules." Just about any rule here can be broken

20

under the proper circumstances;
the guidelines in the following chapters demonstrate when a
rule can be broken as part of an appropriate game move.

During his years at Second City, George Wendt says that the "no rules" rule could be both
liberating and frustrating while improvising for Del.

"Our working relationship was extremely loose," he recalls. "Almost anarchic, to the
extent that Del would either ignore scenes or give copious notes on scenes that were eminently
forgettable! It was alternately enlightening and discouraging, as it would be for any improv
company. You'd do a brilliant scene and you'd know it was brilliant, and the audience would
know it was brilliant, and everybody would be very excited. You'd come backstage and Del
would say, 'Nice work In the psychiatrist scene. Unfortunately, Mike Nichols and Klnine
May
did it in 1963!' "

Anything can happen in improv. The only rule that can never
be broken is the rule of
agreement. Experienced improvisers may decide to cut loose in a scene and break as many
improv rules as possible, and the scenes are usually very funny (at
least to fellow improvisers
—
they run the risk of being a bit
in-jokey to other observers). Even here, though, they are
simply
playing a game —
the "Rule-Breaking Game," and the performers all agree to
participate.

If the game rules of improvisation are followed, the players will "win" on stage. And if
they play the game well, then
everybody wins.

KEY POINTS FOR CHAPTER TWO
*Don't make jokes.

*Let humor arise out of the situation.

*Take the scene seriously.

*Agreement is the only rule that cannot be broken.

*Connections cannot be avoided; don't force them.

21

CHAPTER THREE

Support and Trust

The actor's business is to justify.

–Elaine May

St. Louis Compass Players, 1957

The master weaver incorporated the mistakes of his students into a larger pattern.

–Sufi saying

Many years ago, Del was teaching an improv class during the same period he was
directing The Committee in San Francisco. In order to impress upon them the importance of
trust
among actors, he decided to employ an exercise often used in acting classes. "We had a
second-level balcony in our theatre," he recalls. "As a display of trust, I leaped off the balcony
into the arms of the students. They dropped me.

"In order to give them the impression that they were not failures, I climbed up again and
jumped off a second time. They dropped me again. I found out shortly after that one of those
falls had broken my collarbone!" he laughs.

Fortunately, most "trust exercises" end far more successfully. Broken bones aside, falling
off a platform doesn't even come close to the fear an actor feels when he realizes he is not being
supported in a scene by his fellow players. That chilling realization is more like jumping out of
a plane and realizing your parachute is still on board.

Support and trust go hand-in-hand for performers; they must trust that their fellow players
will support them. The only star in improv is the ensemble itself; if everyone is doing his job
well, then no one should stand out.
The best way for an improviser to look good is by making
his fellow players look good.

When former Second City and ImprovOlympic actor David Pasquesi won a Chicago
award for performing, he accepted it by saying, "Our job is to make the others look good. By
getting this award, I guess I'm not doing my job. I'll try harder next time!"

If the ensemble members commit 100 per cent to the group
there will be no mistakes on
stage.

"I don't see how any actor could not do that," says Chris Farley, emphasizing the
importance of the actor committing to his scene. "What else could they do? That's what they're
doing. They're on the stage for that purpose. Anything else is not giving 100 per cent, and if
that's what you really want to do, then
give
100 per cent."

Farley recalls that Michael Myers (his future
Saturday Night Live
co-star) was a
performer in the very first Harold he ever saw, and was impressed at the way Myers and the
others were so committed to the work that they were able to take chances during the show
which they otherwise couldn't have.

22

"I remember watching Mike and being truly in awe of how everything evolved from a
mere suggestion," remembers Farley. "Mike was able to use the audience quite a bit, going out
into the audience and not being limited by the space on the stage, tackling any idea. Del talks
about stepping off the cliff, and Mike is one that definitely steps off the cliff and takes a chance
—
takes many chances. He initiated and furthered the Harold to depths unknown —
it was
really amazing."