PART 1 of the Series: ReV up Your Improv Scenes
After experiencing thousands of improv scenes, I often come away with (or am distracted by) the sense that the improvisers didn’t get all they could out of the scene. Many times it is manifest in the fact that the scene never really gets going to begin with. Other times the scene loses momentum along the way.
The following multi-part series will explore some of these dynamics, but more importantly will offer an exciting and easy to employ set of strategies and techniques that can quickly get your improv scenes underway in a hurry and help play them out to exciting, fun and satisfying conclusions.
First, a little backstory to set the stage. I have an associate who has a very wild and fun seasonal tradition I have coined the “conflagration celebration.” If you’re someone like me who likes setting stuff on fire and watching it burn, you’ll appreciate this.
Each year in early January he invites several friends and their friends to his lakeside “fish camp” for a post-holiday party. They are all invited to bring their recently de-decorated Christmas trees.
Everyone throws their contribution into a big pile by the lake and the host sets them on fire just after sunset. As you can imagine, these trees that have been cut weeks ago and have since been drying in someone’s living room aided by the slow and consistent heat of a thousand lights will provide a glorious blaze for all to admire. That is certainly true and those trees never disappoint. The popping, crackling and spitting is always a wonder to behold. But after the first year, my friend had to make some modifications in his set up and delivery of excitement. The trees were so wonderfully dry that they did indeed blaze up immediately, but the excitement was over almost in an instant with little or nothing to follow. It did not make for an experience that would last through the night’s festivities.
