"Truth In Comedy" by Charna Halpern

• “Harold” was the name of a form of improv that Del had developed in the late 1960s while working with San Francisco’s legendary improv troupe The Committee.
• Improvisers are trained to start their scenes in the middle and always eliminate clutter, principles that all good writers should implement.
• Deliberately trying to be funny or witty is a considerable drawback, and often leads to disaster. Honest responses are simpler and more effective.
• Real improv involves constant experimentation and exploration.
• True improvisation is getting on-stage and performing without any preparation or planning.
• First of all, no one can read a book and become funny.
• The truth is funny.
• Honest discovery, observation, and reaction is better than contrived invention.
• We’re funniest when we’re just being ourselves.
• The freshest, most interesting comedy is based on exposing our own personalities.
• A truly funny scene is not the result of someone trying to steal laughs at the expense of his partner, but of generosity--of trying to make the other person (and his ideas) look as good as possible.
• Simply put, in comedy, honesty is the best policy.
• If honesty is the best road to comedic improvisation, the best vehicle to get there is the Harold.
• The first rule in Harold is that there are no rules. Still, a basic Harold usually takes on a general structure described as follows:
• Harold begins with a group of players--six or seven is usually ideal.
• The team solicits a suggestion for a theme from the audience, and begins a warm-up game to share ideas and attitudes about the theme.
• Eventually, a couple of players usually start a scene.
• Once the scene is established, it will be cut off by a second scene, one which has as little to do with the first scene as it has to do with the theme.
• After a third scene is similarly presented, the ensemble will then participate in what is generally referred to as a “game”.
• The initial three scenes usually return again.
• After a second group game, the scenes return for one last time, often tying into each other and the theme, culminating in a finale that incorporates the theme and as many elements form the scenes and games as possible.
• A good Harold is not only fun for the performers and their audience, it’s also a good way to come up with ideas for future material.
• One of the biggest mistakes an improviser can make is attempting to be funny.
• Audience members laugh at things they can relate to, but they cannot empathize if the performers are insincere.
• The only way to do a comedy scene is to play it completely straight.
• The more ridiculous the situation, the more seriously it must be played; the actors must be totally committed to their characters and play them with complete integrity to achieve maximum laughs.
• The only way to play comedy is seriously.
• Don’t try to make jokes in improv!
• Jokes are not necessary; they are a complete waste of time and energy that is better spent developing a scene.
• Many actors don’t understand the difference between a joke and a laugh. A joke is only one way--and seldom the best way--to get a laugh; jokes can get laughs but, obviously, laughs don’t always result from jokes.
• The most effective, satisfying laughs usually come from an actor making a connection to something that has gone before.
• Unfortunately, if you are able to comment on the scene, then you are not really involved in the scene.
• Making connections is as easy as listening, remembering, and recycling information.
• 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.
• Just about any rule here can be broken under the proper circumstances.
• The only rule that can never be broken is the rule of agreement.
• Support and trust go hand-in-hand for performers; they must trust that their fellow players will support them.
• The best way for an improviser to look good is by making his fellow players look good.
• If the ensemble members commit 100 per cent to the group, there will be no mistakes on stage.
• Whenever someone makes what appears to be a mistake on stage, the others immediately justify it and weave it into the pattern of the entire work.
• The best way to support the teammate on the hot spot is to rudely shove him off that spot.
• When a player jumps out without an idea, he discovers that a song sung off the top of his head at the spur of the moment usually connects to the theme better than anything devised while waiting on the sidelines.
• When two improvisers are on stage arguing, they are only preventing something more interesting from happening.
• “Yes, & ...” is the most important rule in improvisation.
• The “Yes, &...” rule simply means that whenever two actors are on stage, they agree with each other to the Nth degree. If one asks the other a question, the other must respond positively, and then provide additional information, no matter how small.
• Agreement is the one rule that can never be broken: the players must be in agreement to forward the action of the scene.
• While disagreement is not interesting, the tension that conflict causes may be. The players can agree to disagree (thus turning it into a game), as long as there is agreement between the players to further the scene.
• One of the first principles taught to students at the Improv-Olympia is that agreement is much more interesting than conflict.
• The audience laughs at agreement--a secret of comedy that very few people realize.
• In order to properly brainwash the actors with this theory of acceptance, the director may want to force them to over-accept, screaming “Yes!” “Terrific idea!” “Great!” and other praises of brilliance after each idea is stated.
• Everything is accepted, treated respectfully and, most importantly, used.
• Since every idea is remembered and used, players shouldn’t give more than one suggestion for each topic.
• In improvisation, an initiation is the first information provided by one of the players. This can be a line of dialog, a gesture, or even an attitude.
• A good initiation is vital to the scene, because it provides players with information that forms the foundation of their scene. The best initiations make assumptions, usually about their relationship, roles, or locations.
• Whatever the initiation may be, the players then take turns adding information.
• He who gives information is a gift-giver; he who asks questions is a thief.
• Instead of providing fellow actors with facts, questions place the burden of invention upon the other players.
• When an actor discovers what his fellow improviser wants, he should, by all means, give it to him!
• Most of the time, the scenic game is discovered within the first three lines of the scene. When it is missed, it’s usually because the players haven’t paid close attention.
• Hearing and listening are two different things. When a player is given an initiation, he must let the words resonate inside his head for a moment, so that he can decipher the underlying meaning.
• If a player takes the time to consider what the other speaker means, then his response is more intelligent than the knee-jerk response.
• A player’s move is not complete until he sees how it affects his partner.
• The way an initiation is presented is just as important as the words themselves, and the accomplished improviser must always be listening for intonations and hidden meanings.
• Always listen to the whole idea in a statement.
• The emotion behind a line reading can change its entire meaning, and so it’s easy for very different scenes to result from the same opening line.
• An actor following each moment through to the next is constantly making discoveries, an ideal state for improvisers. If a player is planning ahead and thinking about the direction he wants the action to go, then he isn’t paying attention to what is going on at the moment.
• Everything heard should be remembered and eventually used.
• An actor can only justify scenic moves--and any seeming “mistakes”--if he is “in the moment,” and not planning ahead.
• The only way to succeed at a Conducted Story is to listen and pay attention every step of the way.
• A relationship must exist between the characters on stage.
• The easiest way to advance a scene is for the performers to make assumptions.
• The simpler the idea, the better.
• A common mistake for some improvisers is to be led by the audience. Unfortunately, an audience doesn’t necessarily want what it thinks it wants.
• Exposition sucks.
• Action begins with the disruption of a routine.
• Too many actors make the error of talking about doing something instead of doing it; a potentially interesting scene gets frittered away because no one is actually doing anything.
• Scenes are much more interesting when the idea is seen, rather than talked about.
• A game doesn’t have to be as specific and organized as some of the improv exercises explained throughout this book. Game are found within scenes.
• To discover the potential games in each scene, players must pay close attention from the start.
• Players must not only be alert to game moves, they must also be aware of the patterns in a scene--and then play them.
• There’s little point in a player discussing the past or panning the future in a scene. A good improviser shows us the now.
• An improviser needs to consider the most intelligent response he can give to a statement, and so he must feel he can take the time to stop and think.
• There is action in thought, and the audience finds a player’s response worth waiting for.
• The actor’s cliche is very true: less is more.
• For some inexplicable reason, things are funnier when they happen three times. This is a basic, but mysterious, rule of comedy.
• The unusual choices result in the most interesting scenes.
• The ego is the part of the mind that hangs on to preconceived notions about scenes, so the best improvisers always strive to overcome their own egos.
• There is no reason why a large group of people should have trouble on stage, as long as everyone knows where the focus of the scene is.
• All human beings have a sense memory that can summon up a past sound, sight, or smell.
• As soon as an actor begins to see his environment on stage, the audience sees it through his eyes.
• Improvisers must totally commit to their environment, because as easily as they create a location for their audience, they can destroy it.
• Objects in a scene are there to help lead a player who feels stuck. They should prompt the improviser to discover, rather than invent.
• Visualizing objects in an environment always rescues a player who becomes temporarily stuck in a scene.
• When making choices, specifics are always better than generalities.
• Of course, while an environment and the objects within it affect the scene, they should not be the scene.
• Experiences performers learn that their dialog isn’t about their activity.
• Many potentially wonderful scenes come to a dead halt because the actor is concerned about what his “character” is doing or saying in a specific situation.
• It is impossible for the character an actor is playing to get stuck. It isn’t the character who is stuck, but the actor himself. It isn’t the character who is stuck, but the actor himself. Since this “character” shares his mind, his intelligence, and his morals, the player must reveal himself in this person.
• There is nothing a character won’t do. When an actor discovers a new character in his personality, he must find what will make him go further--to do the unexpected.
• To edit a scene, a player walks onto the center of the stage and initiates the next scene or game. He simply waits for the right moment, then crosses in front of the existing scene, thus beginning the next one. The scene being cut slowly fades back up stage, where the remaining Harold players are waiting and watching for their roles to become apparent.
• It’s more polite to edit a scene too soon than too late, because they can always return with their ideas later.
• “Walk-ons” are appropriate if a performer has an idea to help move the scene forward in the same direction that its players are moving it.
• Good walk-ons enter, give their initiation, and then exit. A walk-on must remember that the scene is not about him; he shouldn’t re-direct the scene or become it focus.
• A new team learns the proper traffic patterns in order to operate efficiently. Among the most important are entering scenes from the read; editing scenes from the front, and initiating split scenes from the side.
• Since real props cannot be transformed, they become a burden; when actual physical props are sitting around on stage, they limit the improvised creation of other props.
• In improvisation, when you ask a question, you are taking information away from your fellow player, instead of adding information.
• Moves which offer information allow a fellow player to react and to justify. Reaction and justification lead to an exciting discovery process between the players, which is our goal.
• Players break reality when one of them denies the basis of the scene he has helped to create, usually for the sake of a laugh.
• Another candidate for “Worst Crime in Improv” is physical violence on stage that actually results in an actor getting hurt.
• So what happens when a scene requires violence? Easy. We do it in slow motion.
• When players ask an audience for a theme, it’s best to ask for a simple, mundane subject, so the actors can elevate it into something vastly profound.
• Players should try to take the first suggestion given by the audience.
• It is important to remember that the Harold is not about the theme. It is only inspired by the theme.
• On those rare occasions when a player doesn’t know what a suggestion means, all he has to do is ask his teammates on stage!
• The opening is the most important part of the Harold, since it is the foundation of the entire piece.
• Every bit of information shared by the players in the opening will be remembered and used.
• A monologue in a Harold is an opportunity to remember and then share a past experience. Players must remember, not invent. This book was titled Truth in Comedy because there is nothing funnier than the truth, so players must keep their monologues honest.
• Rants consist of the actors delivering loud, angry monologues on a particular aspect of the theme.
• A Time Dash is a three-part scene, with an unlimited passage of time between each of the three beats. Players establish a relationship in the first beat. It changes to its potential in the second, and comes to a resolution in the third.
• Scenes do not have to end in the same order that they began.
• Key points:
• Be honest.
• Don’t go for the jokes.
• There’s nothing funnier than the truth.
• 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.
• Respect choices made by others.
• There are no bad ideas.
• There are no mistakes. Everything is justified.
• Treat others as if they are poets, geniuses and artists, and they will be.
• The best way to look good is to make your fellow players look good.
• Yes, and...Accept and build.
• Make assumptions--don’t ask questions.
• Look for the game within your scene and play it.
• Listen and remember.
• Listen for the whole idea in a statement.
• Avoid preconceived notions.
• Stay in the moment. What is happening now will be the key to discovering.
• Nothing is ignored. Follow the unexpected twist.
• There is no such thing as a mistake.
• Keep it simple. Less is more.
• Avoid exposition.
• Start scenes in the middle.
• Take the active choice to forward action.
• Be specific. Avoid generalities.
• Listen for the game move.
• Welcome the silences. There is action in thought.
• Take the unusual choice.
• Listen to your inner voice.
• Reflect each other’s ideas.
• Commit to the physical.
• Let your environment affect you.
• Be specific with your objects.
• Reveal yourself through your character.
• Find your function or role in every game.
• The suggestion is the inspiration to discover the theme.