UCB Improv 201 Class Notes

Instructors: Neil Casey / Kevin Hines
Date Taken: October 2008

The concept of “game” taught at UCB immediately appealed to my math-mind and helped me find ways to explore funny.  I took 201 as an intensive (8 3-hour days over 2 weeks) hoping to get through it faster, and while it was a fun experience, it was a lot to absorb in a short period of time.

Find out more about UCB’s training program here.

Class #1 – 101 Review & First Unusual Thing

Instructor: Neil Casey

• Yes And until you find the interesting thing, then move to “If this is true, what else is true.”
• We play human beings doing real human things.
• You don’t have to do as much as you think, “save yourself the work”
• Play it real.  You don’t have to dog pile it on
• Play it real, your character is as smart as you are
• For this class, you don’t need to introduce conflict
• Make it in the present
• Look for the unusual not the crazy
• If you start out normal, you’ll discover the unusual thing, you won’t have to invent it.
• It’s not a denial to react honestly
• Your “premise” of the scene doesn’t have to be funny, in fact it doesn’t even matter.
• There should only be 1 unusual thing, everything else is played real.

Class #2 – Pattern Game, Game of the Scene, & Heightening

Instructor: Kevin Hines

• Pay attention to opinions and reactions, that’s where you’ll find interesting things.
• Don’t forget to “Yes And” yourself, listen to what you say
• Your reactions are what helps you identify the unusual thing
• A fight before your know that game is can ruin a scene.  A fight that serves the game (after you know it) can be great.
• Answer the key questions to the scene (who? what? where? sometimes why?)
• Don’t forget to carry your justifications all the way through the scenes
• You don’t want to fight.  You can disagree, but don’t get “angry”
• Don’t feel trapped or controlled by your suggestion, feel freed by it.
• Make sure you play (and heighten) the game, not the plot.
• Play the active choice.
• Initiations serve 3 purposes (in order of importance): (1) Generate ideas; (2) Connect w/ your group members; (3) Entertain the audience

Class #3 – Editing & Support

Instructor: Neil Casey

• We all pledge our allegiance to the show, and we all support what’s already happening.
• “Karaoke rule” – it doesn’t matter what you’re doing on stage, as long as you sell it.
• Pattern Game:
• Generates “half ideas”
• You want to initiate scenes from it that were memorable, that people laughed at
• Don’t want to initiate scene off of something you said personally
• When you find something interesting, riff on that idea a few times
• Random A->C connections is yes anding, then riffing on interesting thing is “if this, then what”
• Play the pattern game with energy
• Cardinal rule of editing is to end on a laugh or high point (even if it’s just a relative maximum)
• You generally can’t edit “too” early.  If there was something there, you can always come back to it
• If you think you should’ve edited, you should have.
• Name people in your scenes.  It’s actually harder to carry out a scene without naming each other.
• Walk-ons, tag-outs, swinging doors, are not for jokes or one-lines, they are for adding information or heightening the game.

Class #4 – Environmental Support

Instructor: Neil Casey

• The tone of natural conversation is the way you should always start a scene
• Play normal
• You can be entertaining with being laugh out loud hilarious
• You should be mellow in your character (i.e. not a crazy person), but super aggressive in your pursuit of the game
• Your character is real.  The improviser is playing the game.
• Improv is theater, not TV
• Backline should provide: tag-outs, walk-ons, swinging doors, background characters, sound fx, props, animals, anything with a face.
• You can just exist on stage to paint the scene (e.g. as a waiter, you enter to heighten a game.  Don’t just walk straight off, go to another “table”, cash out, etc)
• Enter and exit like a real person
• Support moves should add specificity and information
• Be serious and normal at the top of scenes
• 3 keys to good improv: (1) Start normal (like in non-funny scenes); (2) Play to the top of your intelligence; (3) Aggressively go after the game
• Personal notes (from Neil):
• You’re very analytical, don’t be afraid to get out there and just react
• Play normal, have made some “sillier” choices at times

Class #5 – 2nd Beats

Instructor: Kevin Hines

• 2nd beats are seeing the game of a scene again.  The game not the plot.
• Generally your 2nd beats go in the same order as your first scenes
• Generally have the same 2 people in the 2nd beat (but not necessarily the same characters)
• Can do 2nd beats two ways:
• Time-dash: same 1 or 2 characters but at a different period of time (before or after)
• Analogous: same game but different characters
• Never worry about the 2nd beat during the first scene
• Never “hold” something for your 2nd beat, you may never get to it
• The character always must want to win the argument, the improviser should play the game (and generally not succeed at solving the problem)
• Generally won’t do tag-outs, etc. in 1st beats (you don’t know the game yet)
• If you did have a tag-out, you’d likely do an analogous 2nd beat as time-dash would be harder
• If you didn’t play a specific game in the first beat, think about what was the most interesting thing and play that in the 2nd (even if you didn’t play it in the first one)
• In 2nd beat, you don’t need to reference what happened in the 1st beat (and probably shouldn’t)
• Your first beat has to have strong characters so you are able to call them back in the 2nd beat

Class #6 – 2nd Beats

Instructor: Kevin Hines

• Never be afraid to add information
• Initiation – get everything important out in the first line, your partner will supply additional information
• You should build to absurdity (earn it), not make giant leaps to it.
• There’s a difference between patterns and games.  Games will heighten, patterns just repeat.
• Beat 2: you’re probably trying too hard if you have to explain what happened in between your 1st and 2nd beats
• You have to understand why you’re playing that game (your characters’ motivation)
• Never expect a certain answer or reaction.  Just listen and react to what was actually said.

Class #7 – Putting It Together – Running the Show

Instructor: Kevin Hines

• REACT
• Play your scenes actively (don’t just talk about something)
• Heighten your reactions, play more extreme when picking
• Dialogue is secondary to your characters (should not be talking heads) but primary to audience
• Make sure you are using what you hear, not just hearing it
• Whatever makes your partner react, you want to provide more of that
• Provide 1 piece of information then stop talking, allow your scene partner to react
• While waiting between beats, think of a possible first line, then pay attention to other scenes (i.e. don’t think too much or try to plan too much out)
• Don’t timedash with plot.  Don’t think “what happened next” think “If this, then what”

Class #8 – Putting It All Together – Running the Show

Instructor: Kevin Hines

• Don’t worry about solving your problems
• In a scene if your character is presented with something he doesn’t want to do, “fight” it as your character, but actually do it
• Put it in action
• Provide support / scene painting quickly
• As the “weird” make sure you are grounded somewhere in reality and play that as well (it helps to heighten the game and support the straight person)
• React first, then catch up to what’s happening if you need to
• Personal notes (from Kevin):
• You tend to initiate with problems
• Get to the fun parts quicker
• Be active in your choices, don’t just talk about the game

Improv 201 Class Show

• straight man don’t forget to continue to ground it in reality
• don’t be tepid at the top of your scene, commi make a decision
• should be a friendly competition to see who can find shame first
• provide information! (even walkons) if ur on back line and u don’t know where they are, ur responsible for adding that information.
• avoid scene of bad X (first day as pilot on air force one)