Every line can advance the scene in some way: somehow move things forward or add something new.
Here are some basic techniques for advancing a scene:
| • | Add information by yesanding what has come before. Be concrete and add some new detail to the scene. It can be a very tiny detail or something huge or anything in between. |
| • | Connect things that were in the scene. Tie things together that started off unrelated. Often reincorporation advances the action so fully that it gives you a closer. |
| • | If there is a pending action, do it right now. For example, if you're caterers and are supposed to make an omelette, then start making the omelette. |
| • | If the scene seems to be get getting stuck, you can add information about the platform even if the platform is already established. For example, if it's already established that you're at a factory, you can add that your tool drawer is filled with more drill bits than you can possibly use. Or you can expand on your relationship by endowing your scene partner with a previous career as a lawyer (out of left field, but still in the reality). Now the audience expects that somehow this new fact will figure into the story. Suddenly the scene has new potential. |
| • | Whenever there's a choice, take the active choice. (There is always a choice.) |
| • | Cut to a related scene. For example, if someone mentioned something that he did in college, you can stop right where you are and begin a flashback scene: in college, right at the moment mentioned. When that's done, you can cut back to the original scene, where you make use of new information from the flashback. Or who knows? (This technique is especially pertinent in a Harold.) |
| • | If your scene partner starts the scene before you and establishes a clear-cut personality, then you establish a different personality. The difference adds something new, that hasn't been in the scene yet, and opens up potential to explore and interact. |
If you have your mind focused on advancing the scene, then you aren't thinking about being funny. The temptation of gagging completely disappears: you're too busy exploring the reality and seeing what happens to worry about whether you're being funny.
Temptations to avoid
Everyone seems to be born with a resistance to advancing a scene. Put into a scene where things are moving, or could move, we call upon amazing powers of creativity to prevent anything from happening. Overcoming this instinct is perhaps the major part of learning to improv. See Improv vs. Instinct.
Here are some common ways that people block action. There's no shame in having these temptations. Just recognize that, like everyone else, you're tempted, and gradually develop the opposite habit.
| • | Thinking up reasons why an action can't get started or must be delayed. For example, if you're about to play basketball, you might keep coming up with conversational tangents instead of getting going with the basketball game. This is really just a way to keep things "safe", since you can't see what will happen if you do the action: "What if I don't know what to do then?" If you find yourself reaching to delay an action, a simple solution is to do the action immediately. Go out on a limb and see what you see then; you can't know in advance, and that's where the magic comes from. Start the basketball game and let that take you somewhere. |
| • | Repeating previous lines. "I've got to be funny, I've got to be funny--oh, that line got a laugh, I'll try saying that line! Maybe if I say this line a whole bunch of times, it'll get a laugh." Maybe it will, but it won't have the magic of advancing the scene. Let every line say something new. |
| • | Yessing without anding. Someone says that he's dropped his car keys down a well. You say, "Um, yes, your keys are down a well." Everything you add is a risk: someone might not like it, someone might perceive it as "wrong", it might lead the scene down the toilet and it'll all be your fault. Take that risk. |
| • | Refusing. A creepy man comes up to you and says, "My, you're a cute little boy. How'd you like to come for a ride in my car?" In real life, you should probably say no. In improv, only one answer is possible: get in that car and let the audience find out where it goes. Part of the temptation to refuse is that you don't know where the car will go. That's the temptation to keep the scene safe and under control. Give up control and let the scene take you for a ride! (Beware of yessing without anding, though: when you say yes, be sure to add something, like "Yes, I need to get back to the embassy. My parents will be worried.") |
| • | Canceling. Thinking up a clever reason to gut all the potential from something that just entered the scene. For example, someone puts a refrigerator into the scene, and you "add" that the refrigerator is empty. Ahh, back to safety, now nothing can happen. (Refusing is the most common sort of canceling.) |
| • | Bickering. Having a conflict by standing and arguing with each other, each standing firm and demanding that the other back down. |
| • | Going back to square one. Someone dives into a scene and something happens! Now what? It's tempting but boring for that person to leave the scene and have the characters pick up where they left off. Whatever action happens in a scene must change the reality permanently: new action must continue it, not just go on as if nothing had happened. You're in a scene where you're two actors talking about the difficulty of working with some director. If Joe McCarthy enters the scene and accuses one of you of being a communist, don't dismiss him and go back to kvetching about the director. Allow yourself to be derailed! Joe is here, so do something with him and let him lead the scene in a new direction. Let him put you in handcuffs, quote defiantly from Marx, offer Joe a cigarette, try to bribe him with shares in a nuclear power plant, call president Eisenhower--move forward, and never ever go back to where you were. |
| • | Asking permission. Instead of boldly making an offer, you try to make sure the other person is ok with your offer--moving tentatively rather than boldly. For example, if you're at the Grand Canyon, your imagination might give you, "Open parachutes!" as you gesture like you're in mid-air after jumping out of a plane. That's a strong offer and begins the scene in the middle--advancing the action in a big way right in the first line. But wait, maybe your scene partner should have a say in a decision with such far-reaching consequences. So you say, "Hey, how about we get our parachutes, rent a plane, and make a jump into this canyon?" Not horrible, but incredibly weak compared to the bold offer. (See Commit.) |
| • | Being "zany". If you feel the burden of being funny, and you can't think of anything funny to do right now, you might feel tempted to go spastic or purposely throw in things that don't fit in the reality. For example, in the middle of a scene on a speedboat, where it's clear but not stated that you've been at sea for a while, you might try being "funny" by adding that you're sitting in a veterinarian's office. (Ha, ha, after all those boat noises.) This requires exceptional trust, but if the scene lacks potential, add information that's still in the reality but is far away from what's happened so far. That will create the possibility for funny connections to happen later. For example, in the speedboat scene that doesn't feel funny enough, you might say, "Ok, stop the motor, time to count the money. Here's the briefcase." |
| • | Having the same personality as your scene partner. If your scene partner comes on as a mafia boss, it can be tempting to also put on an Italian accent and also play high status. But this is actually just adding nothing, staying somewhere where you feel you have permission to stay. Better to play a personality different and complementary to your scene partner: maybe you are the new hit man, here for his first day on the job; maybe you're delivering spumoni to a big meeting; maybe you're a fashion designer, here to design a suit for the mafia boss; maybe you're from the Canadian mafia, eh? |
A fun exercise is to intentionally engage in action-blocking moves like these, and then replay the scene but taking the active choice at a critical moment.
See also: Pacing, Tips and Techniques.
